Fifth Michael Doherty Spanish Golf Tour victory for Brennan

Maurice Brennan of Greencastle Golf Club recorded his fifth Spanish victory to collect the Travellers’ Trophy on the 47th Michael Doherty Golf Tour at Santa Ponsa in Majorca on Thursday. He had won previously in 1995, 1998, 1999 and 2018.

He becomes only the second player on tour to have achieved this amazing feat after City of Derry’s Liam McCaul won in 1979 and then four years running from 1981 to 1984.

After four days of competition, he and his closest rival, Kevin Barrett of City of Derry, both finished with 150 points at the eighteenth hole and it required a play-off back down the first hole at Santa Ponsa to separate the two. Brennan recorded an excellent up and down for a par four to defeat Barrett by one shot.

This long-running tournament, which started way back in 1976, was the inspiration of the late City of Derry Club Professional Michael Doherty and after he stepped down in 2008 it has been organised by former City of Derry Captain Andy Meenagh. 32 players made the trip this year, drawn from no less than 9 clubs and again included two players from Perth in Australia, Leo Hickey and Peter Doherty. No less than 14 past winners played in this year’s event.

Two excellent golf courses, T Golf Poniente and Santa Ponsa hosted the event and the results over the four days were as follows:-

Daily Results

Day 1 at T Golf Poniente: 1. George Pearson, CoD 43 points; 2. David Jones Cod 41 points on break of tie and 3, Maurice Brennan, Greencastle 41 points.

Day 2 at Santa Ponsa: 1. Kevin Barrett, CoD 45 points; 2. Tommy O’Neill, CoD 40 points and 3. Gary Leckey, CoD 39 points.

Day 3 at T Golf Poniente: 1. Eugene Dunbar, Portstewart 39 points; Maurice Brennan, Greencastle 38 points on break of tie and 3. Mark O’Doherty, CoD 38 points.

Day 4 at Santa Ponsa: 1. Karl Doherty, CoD 40 points; 2. Tommy O’Neill CoD 39 points and 3. Eamon McCourt CoD 38 points.

Top 10 Finishers

The top 10 tournament finishers were:

1. Maurice Brennan, Greencastle 150 points [41, 34, 38 and 37]; 2. Kevin Barrett, CoD 150 points [38, 45, 37 and 30]; 3. Mark O’Doherty, CoD 146 points [37, 34, 38 and 37]; 4. Karl Doherty, CoD 144 points [36, 37, 31 and 40]; 5. Stephen Wray, Portadown 142 points [38, 33, 37 and 34]; 6. Eugene Dunbar, Portstewart 142 points [37, 33, 39 and 33]; 7. Peter Villa CoD 142 points [39, 36, 34 and 33]; 8. Gary Leckey CoD 142 points [40, 39, 34, 29]; 9. Eamon McCourt CoD 141 points [38, 34, 31 and 38]; and 10. Peter Doherty, Perth, Australia 140 points [34, 36, 33 and 37].

Team Competition

In addition to the individual scoring, the 32 players were drawn into eight teams before departing for Spain, although after day 1 they all split up and play in different 4-balls for the following 3 days.

The top 3 teams were: 1. Brian Long, Newcastle, Peter Villa, Kevin Barrett and Eugene Dunbar 362 points; 2. Brendan Coyle, North West, Maurice Brennan, Karl Doherty and Martin Doherty CoD 359 points, and 3. Ciaran O’Neill, Greencastle, Sean McKane, North West, Tom McDermott, CoD and Tommy O’Neill 354 points. The Bishopsgate Hotel sponsored the prizes for the wining team.