Coughlan wants East Cork to build on double

Not content with an All-Ireland double title success, East Cork Golf Club lady president Catherine Coughlan has thrown down the gauntlet to the rest of the membership in the hunt for national recognition.

East Cork GC is busy celebrating Junior Cup and Challenge Cup victories in the Private Home Care Ladies Interclub Championships at Mullingar Golf Club last weekend.

The Challenge Cup, for handicappers between 30 and 36, saw manager Carmel Moloney’s side score a 4-1 victory in the final over East Leinster champions Newlands, while the final of the Junior Cup, for 8-15 handicappers, was won in even more convincing style, Jean Guilfoyle’s team winning 5-0 over another East Leinster pennant holder in Dun Laoghaire.

East Cork’s success is reward for a thriving female membership of 150, with a dozen 8-15 handicappers to select from for the Junior Cup campaign this season.

“Everybody is so competitive, they put so much into it and their dedication is unreal,” lCoughlan told the Irish Examiner. “Everybody had to fight for their place.”

That competitive spirit was more than evident in Mullingar, where East Cork swept all comers aside in the Junior Cup, beating Callan, Athenry and then Dun Laoghaire without dropping a point in successive 5-0 victories to repeat its first national success in the same competition two years ago in Ardee.

“They won very, very well,” said Coughlan, who was team manager in 2011. “One of the matches went to the 18th but each of them won their matches and we weren’t depending on anybody — 15 matches and we didn’t lose any of them.

“We got one title two years ago and so we went for the two this time. It’s absolutely brilliant, a first time for the club to do two in the one year and I think a first time for a Munster club.

“Now the intermediates and the minors have to up their game for next year,” Coughlan joked.