Rising Waterford golf star is latest Park winner
A brilliant unbeaten run on the Irish team that claimed the Home International Boys Golf Championship in Scotland has landed the prestigious Park Hotel monthly Sport Star Award for Dungarvan CBS Leaving Cert student Gary Hurley.
Son of Richard and Patricia Hurley of Ballinaparka, Aglish, the seventeen year old sensation is a member of the West Waterford Golf Club where he plays off a handicap of one.
Since taking up the game at the tender age of ten, Gary has made the most spectacular progress, and is now widely regarded as one of the most genuinely exciting prospects the sport has thrown up in this country in a long while.
His selection on the Irish team for last month’s Boys Home International Championship had a sense of inevitability about it, and when Ireland were crowned champions at the end of it all the Aglish youngster had emerged as the real hero for his country.
Gary remained unbeaten throughout, winning all of his six matches, and that immense individual contribution to the overall team effort was the single most crucial factor in Ireland’s famous triumph.
Twice previously Ireland had won this championship but on both occasions that was achieved on home soil.
Last month’s Scottish win however was the first time Ireland had lifted the tile outside of the country.
He was also a member of the West Waterford club’s Munster Senior Cup team that made a brave bid to retain its provincial title this year. West Waterford reached the final yet again only to lose out to Limerick 3-2 with Gary---again---winning his match.
Presenting the coveted monthly award to him at a function in the Park Hotel, managing director Pierce Flynn said that in a hugely competitive month Gary had emerged as a most deserving winner of the accolade.
“His achievements in the Home International Championship have been fantastic, and of course Gary subsequently travelled to Sawgrass in the United States where he again worthily represent his country’’, Mr. Flynn added.
Fr. Pat Moran OSA, chairman of the adjudicating panel, said Gary is a “fantastic’’ winner of the 236th monthly award since the scheme was launched all of twenty years ago. “He is a young boy with an exciting future ahead of him’’.
Pat Murphy, speaking on behalf of tthe Golfing Union Of Ireland, lauded the Park Hotel awards scheme which, he said, recognises excellence in sport---all sports. “I will be letting the GUI know exactly the contribution the Park Hotel and Pierce Flynn are making to golf and to sport in general in Waterford,” he added.
Other speakers included Kieran O’Connor (adjudicator), Michael Landers, West Waterford Club Captain, and John Murphy, principal of Dungarvan CBS who described Gary as “an ideal student on all fronts’’ and one everyone at the school is very proud of.
Replying, the youthful award winner said he was “supremely proud “to have won the monthly award’’, and he went on to thank everyone at West Waterford Golf Club for all of the support he has received since he joined. He thanked especially his parents and his sister Shauna for their invaluable support without which he would not have achieved what he has to-date.
Also present were the award winner’s father Richard (Rich); Bertie Hallahan, President, West Waterford Golf Club; Marie Curran, Lady Captain WWGC; Justin Spratt, Junior Officer WWGC and his assistant Michael Byrne; John Carroll, captain of the WWGC Munster Senior Cup team; Munster Senior Cup team colleague David Curran, and Nora Spratt who along with her husband Pat, the owners of WWGC.
Son of Richard and Patricia Hurley of Ballinaparka, Aglish, the seventeen year old sensation is a member of the West Waterford Golf Club where he plays off a handicap of one.
Since taking up the game at the tender age of ten, Gary has made the most spectacular progress, and is now widely regarded as one of the most genuinely exciting prospects the sport has thrown up in this country in a long while.
His selection on the Irish team for last month’s Boys Home International Championship had a sense of inevitability about it, and when Ireland were crowned champions at the end of it all the Aglish youngster had emerged as the real hero for his country.
Gary remained unbeaten throughout, winning all of his six matches, and that immense individual contribution to the overall team effort was the single most crucial factor in Ireland’s famous triumph.
Twice previously Ireland had won this championship but on both occasions that was achieved on home soil.
Last month’s Scottish win however was the first time Ireland had lifted the tile outside of the country.
He was also a member of the West Waterford club’s Munster Senior Cup team that made a brave bid to retain its provincial title this year. West Waterford reached the final yet again only to lose out to Limerick 3-2 with Gary---again---winning his match.
Presenting the coveted monthly award to him at a function in the Park Hotel, managing director Pierce Flynn said that in a hugely competitive month Gary had emerged as a most deserving winner of the accolade.
Fr. Pat Moran OSA, chairman of the adjudicating panel, said Gary is a “fantastic’’ winner of the 236th monthly award since the scheme was launched all of twenty years ago. “He is a young boy with an exciting future ahead of him’’.
Pat Murphy, speaking on behalf of tthe Golfing Union Of Ireland, lauded the Park Hotel awards scheme which, he said, recognises excellence in sport---all sports. “I will be letting the GUI know exactly the contribution the Park Hotel and Pierce Flynn are making to golf and to sport in general in Waterford,” he added.
Other speakers included Kieran O’Connor (adjudicator), Michael Landers, West Waterford Club Captain, and John Murphy, principal of Dungarvan CBS who described Gary as “an ideal student on all fronts’’ and one everyone at the school is very proud of.
Replying, the youthful award winner said he was “supremely proud “to have won the monthly award’’, and he went on to thank everyone at West Waterford Golf Club for all of the support he has received since he joined. He thanked especially his parents and his sister Shauna for their invaluable support without which he would not have achieved what he has to-date.
Also present were the award winner’s father Richard (Rich); Bertie Hallahan, President, West Waterford Golf Club; Marie Curran, Lady Captain WWGC; Justin Spratt, Junior Officer WWGC and his assistant Michael Byrne; John Carroll, captain of the WWGC Munster Senior Cup team; Munster Senior Cup team colleague David Curran, and Nora Spratt who along with her husband Pat, the owners of WWGC.
