Fifty not out — take a bow Noel

Six members of the triumphant Munster team in this week’s Interprovincial Championship at Royal Co Down are included in the field for the South of Ireland Championship starting at Lahinch this morning. And yet, they will all have to take a back seat behind the remarkable Ennis man, Noel Pyne, who is competing for the 50th successive year.

This amazing achievement is its own tribute to the Ennis man’s competitive qualities and remarkable consistency in keeping his handicap low enough to meet the increasingly difficult qualifying criteria. This year, the limit is 1.3, with Pyne setting up a first round meeting just before noon today against Gary Walsh from Mount Juliet. Noel, 66, claims that no matter what may happen, he will happily hang up his clubs for the ‘South’ having reached the 50th milestone.

This is the 111th “South” and has attracted many of the country’s finest modern-day amateur golfers. Waterford’s Kevin Phelan and Alan Thomas, two of the most valuable contributors to Munster’s success in the Interpros, are absentees but team-mates Niall Gorey, Gary O’Flaherty, Pat Murray, Gary Hurley, Geoff Lenehan and Ian O’Rourke will be there.