Fionn McMonagle is the fourth player from Deerpark to win the Eugene McCarthy trophy for the National Boys’ Strokeplay championship.
Fionn is the third member from Deerpark (following Conor McCarthy and Benjamin Kelleher) to win the National Boys’ Strokeplay via the play-off route. No other club can boast more than one Boys’ play-off winner.
Fionn triumphed in the 13th play-off in the championship’s history and is the sixth player representing a Co. Kerry club to lift the trophy.
The 2026 play-off was the second to feature a Kerry v. Cork showdown. The score for those play-offs stands at Kerry 2, Cork 0. Conor McCarthy (Deerpark) and Edward Walsh (Majestic) played extra holes at Pfizer (now Raffeen Creek) in 2013. By coincidence, Conor and Edward also tied on 99, the same score that made this year’s play-off.
99 also qualified for a play-off in 2004 at St. Patrick’s, when Shane Farrelly (Castletown) beat Brian Collins (Douglas). 99 secured overall victory for Jack McShane (Gowran) at Seapoint three years ago.
Conor Ronan is the second member of Fermoy to collect a silver medal in the National Boys’ Strokeplay championship, emulating Darren Quirke (at Old County in 2005).
Conor is the fifteenth Cork player to finish runner-up in the National Boys’ Strokeplay championship and the fourth to be denied in extra holes.
Leon Hogan is the second Fermoy player to capture a bronze medal in the National Boys’ Strokeplay championship, emulating Damien Burke (at ESB in 2003).
For the third time since third place was officially awarded in 1989, the same club (Fermoy) provided the second and third place finishers. Deerpark (2016) and Tralee (1990) are the others.
New Under-13 champion is Listowel’s Eoin Barrett, who is a cousin of overall 2022 victor A Jay Barrett.
Eoin ensured a fifth Kerry victory in the National Under-13 Strokeplay championship.
Jack Murphy is the first winner of the newly-created National Under-13 Strokeplay championship silver medal. He achieved Fermoy’s eighth podium finish in the National Boys’ Strokeplay championship overall (two wins, two seconds, two thirds, one U-13 win and one U-16 second).
Ben Gorman is the first winner of the National Under-13 Strokeplay championship bronze medal.
Ben wrapped-up a seventh Overall Boys’ National Juvenile Strokeplay championship podium finish in total for the Kilbeggan club (one win, two seconds, one third place, two Under-13 wins along with Ben’s achievement at Bruff).
Sarah Ryan is the third player from Co. Tipperary (following Martha O’Brien and Michelle McCarthy) to win the National Girls’ Strokeplay championship.
Sarah is the first member of Tipperary Hills to claim the National Girls’ Strokeplay trophy.
Sarah finished in the top three of the championship for the fifth successive year, which overtakes Bernadette Coffey (1993-96), Tracey McGrath (1996-99) and Clare Keatinge (2009-12) and sets a new all-time record.
Sarah broke the recent Leinster stranglehold on the National Girls’ Strokeplay title. Sarah’s win was the first by a Munster player since Úna Brosnan triumphed at Pfizer (now Raffeen Creek) 13 years ago.
In another link to Úna Brosnan’s success, Sarah Ryan’s aggregate of 108 is the best winning score since the Claycastle player’s record 98, set in 2013.
Pippa Cuffe ensured that a Kilbeggan player achieved a second place performance for the fourth time in National Girls’ Strokeplay championship history. Aoife Carton picked-up a couple of silver medals (in 2007 and 2008) while Sarah Coffey was 2002 runner-up.
Shona Griffin is the first player from Listowel and the first from Co. Kerry to capture a bronze medal in the National Girls Strokeplay championship (since third place was officially awarded in 1989).
Cork move on to a total of 19 National Juvenile Inter-County successes, extending their lead at the head of the all-time Roll of Honour.
The nine-year gap between Cork’s win the Leesiders’ previous triumph (at Erry in 2017) is the longest in history (the two Covid years contributing to that span, which is longer than the 1984 to 1990 ‘famine’).
Cork’s Tommy Murphy Cup winning aggregate of 300 sets the all-time low record for the new four-person format.
Kerry finished as National Juvenile Inter-County runners-up for the tenth time, moving the Kingdom one ahead of Dublin and into outright second place on that particular list.
Joey Blake earned a National Juvenile Inter-County silver medal 23 years after his father Jamie captained Kerry to Tommy Murphy Cup victory at ESB in 2003.
Westmeath claimed third place in the National Juvenile Inter-County championship for the sixth time ever (since third place was officially awarded).
Pippa Cuffe joins Dolores Ryan, Sandra Callaghan, Eleanor Walsh and Aideen Rogers as females to feature on the National Juvenile Inter-County podium.
Conor Ronan ensured that the National Boys’ Strokeplay runner-up helped his team to an Inter-County win in the same year for the tenth time. Pat Wills, Karl Maxwell, Brian Moynihan, David Ryan, Kieran Dunscombe (twice), Edward Walsh and Brian McCarthy (twice) are the others to achieve this.
Bruff hosted the National Juvenile Strokeplay and Inter-County weekend for the first time.
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