The ladies of Black Bush Golf Club from Dunshaughlin, created their own piece of club history last year, when they delivered the first Golf Ireland (previously ILGU) pennants to the club. After over 30 years of trying, which included being beaten in 10 finals (shades of Mayo!), they eventually reached the summit in not one but two different competitions.

First up were the Intermediate Cup team, for handicaps 13- 20, who had a fantastic 3.5/1.5 victory over Clontarf in the Leinster North Final. After matches against Laytown & Bettystown, Ardee, Dundalk and St. Margaret’s, they qualified for the club’s 11th final v Clontarf, which took place in Donabate on August 13th 2023. Cheered on by their loyal supporters, the joy (and slight disbelief!) of eventually winning that elusive pennant was very visible on the faces of players, caddies, managers and all club members. Black Bush had eventually got to experience that winning feeling! Managed by Ann O’Neill and Miriam Horan, the victorious panel who all played their part were as follows: Patricia Curtin, Olivia Barrett, Marie Felle, Claire Healy, Siobhan Cleary, Vivian Marsden, Edel McDermott, Liz Synnott Teresa Dillon and Gillian Hogan.

This first victory was quickly followed up with a second, when the club’s Carton Cup team won the 2023 Carton Cup. This competition caters for ladies of handicaps 37.0 and higher. It is a 9-hole matchplay competition, which was started by Carton House in 2020 with only 8 local clubs involved. This year it had expanded to 78 entrants with clubs from as far apart as Dundalk and Cobh. Each club played a home and away fixture in each round. So, after victories over Mount Temple, South Meath, Mullingar, Glasson and Corrstown, Black Bush qualified for the finals weekend in Carton House (O’Meara Course) on 16th/17th September. After a very tight 3/2 semi-final win over Powerscourt, Black Bush took on Ballyneety from Limerick in Sunday’s final. In very tough, wet and windy conditions, the Black Bush ladies kept their nerve and delivered the club’s second pennant of 2023, with a decisive 4/1 victory. Managers Lorna Beattie and Helen Ó Muirí were very proud of all panel members, who played a total of 12 matches over 5 months. The panel who featured in the winning run were as follows: Ruth Corrigan, Rhona Grant, Margaret Jones, Anne Mulligan, Adrienne Daly, Rena Griffin, Linda McGee, Pauline McLaughlin, Roisin Bell, Sinead Rooney, Ciara Newell and Maureen Kennedy.

What is worth mentioning is that all these Carton Cup ladies are new to the game, having participated in one of the Black Bush’s highly successful Get into Golf (GIG) programmes. These have been running in Black Bush since 2017, and are a great way to start playing this wonderful game which is suitable for all ages and abilities. Black Bush will be running the next GIG programme in June 2024.