Special Olympics

Milltown Golf Club has 31 Volunteers and they operate a roster system which is co-ordinated each week by Karen Bolger. Coaching sessions take an hour from 3 to 4 o’clock each Saturday.

The Management Committee have given permission to play the 1st and 2nd Holes on one Saturday in each month. The Junior Committee under the Chairmanship of John O’Grady have been excellent in facilitating / accommodating the Milltown/ Dublin 6 Golfers. They were invited to participate in the practice sessions organised for the juniors in Leopardstown Driving Range prior to Christmas. The junior golfers present made the Special Olympic golfers feel so welcome and ensured they had an excellent practice session. John Harnett has been very helpful and has given the golfers both group and individual coaching sessions.

Arun Ramlingham was the recipient of the inaugural “Stephen Mehigan Bursary” which was decided would be given to a Special Olympic golfer for his or her’s outstanding golfing achievement. The bursary will be presented in the 3rd year of the 4 year cycle of the world games. This was done to honour Stephen, to keep his memory alive and help with the golfer’s tuition and golfing expenses.

This could not have been done without the support of the Captain’s and Lady Captain’s of recent years and the financial assistance of the wider Milltown GC Membership who so generously contributes to the Captain and Lady Captain’s Charity Day.

Therefore, you can see that through the combined effort of the Milltown gc membership and the volunteers that all the practice and time that they are giving to Milltown/ Dublin 6 Golfers is paying dividends.

Please continue to give them your support during 2011.

Noel Patterson

D6/Milltown Special Olympics Club

D6 /Milltown Special Olympics club was formed in 2005 with the aim of providing opportunities for Special Olympics Athletes to participate in golfing skills and competitions. From the beginning members of Milltown Golf Club have enthusiastically participated in coaching our athletes. Sessions are generally held on Saturday and up to 8 Milltown volunteers coach at the sessions.

We currently have seven active golfers who over the last number of years have made great progress and have been awarded with medals and trophies.

Sean Drew has competed in various skills competitions and has received a number of medals. He has now advanced to nine hole competitions. Sean qualified for the regional games and received a silver medal in May 2009.
Patrick Egan has competed in various skills competitions and has received a number of medals. He has now advanced to nine hole competitions. He qualified for the regional games and received a bronze medal in May 2009. Along with his association with Milltown Patrick has joined Hermitage Golf Club as a Junior Member and has a handicap of 28.
Kaelin Foley has competed in various skills competitions and has received a number of medals. He has now advanced to nine hole competitions. Kaelin qualified for the regional games and received a forth place ribbon. Kaelin represented Ireland in the tri-nation team event in St. Andrews in Scotland in September 2010. The Irish team received a silver medal.
Susan Murray has competed in various skills competitions in and has received silver medals.
Fergal Smith has competed in various skills competitions and has received silver medals.
Joanne Mulligan has competed in various skills competitions in and has received a number of medals. Joanne qualified for the regional games in skills levels and received a silver medal.
Arun Ramlingham has competed in various skills competitions and has received a number of medals. He has now advanced to nine hole competitions. Arun qualified for the regional games and received a gold medal and further qualified for the national games in May 2010 where he won a silver medal. In one of the days Arun achieved best overall score.

In 2010 a D6/Milltown team comprising of Sean Drew, Patrick Egan, Kaelin Foley and Joanne Mulligan won first prize in a Special Olympics tournament organised by the Grange Golf Club as part of their Centenary competitions.

Mary Egan
D6 Golf Co Coordinator