All-Ireland champion golfers in line for Mayo sports award
The victorious squad who won the 2026 All-Ireland U18 Boys Inter-Club Championship representing Ballina Golf Club,
On a wonderful Wednesday in August, there wasn’t a team in the country to touch a group of young golfers from Ballina who were crowned All-Ireland Boys Inter-Club champions.
One of eight teams to qualify for the All-Ireland final at Moate Golf Club in Co Westmeath, Ballina had earlier won the Connacht Boys U18 Inter Club competition – seeing off 21 other teams to list the Kenny Cup at Gort Golf Club in July.
On that occasion they had just two points to spare over an excellent Castlebar team who finished runners-up but on the All-Ireland stage, Ballina were even more convincing winners, finishing four points clear of Cliftonville with 121 points, and an incredible 15 points clear of third placed Clontarf. Teams from Clonakilty, Greystones, Athy, Waterville and Bangor also trailed in the wake of the Ballina boys who followed in the footsteps of the county’s footballers just weeks before by bringing an All-Ireland title home to Mayo.
The squad consisted of Ríain McLoughlin, Patrick McLoughlin, Dara Gaughan, Ben Scully, Adam McAndrew and Tom Moran, and was managed by Ballina Golf Club’s junior convenor Richard Doherty.
“We’re really delighted,” said Richard afterwards. “We set ourselves a target in terms of scoring, but the guys actually came in over what we had hoped and fortunately it was enough to get the job done.” The 41 stableford points both recorded by Patrick McLoughlin and Ben Scully were the joint highest totals out of the 40 players who took to the tee box on the day, with Dara Gaughan (39pts), Rian McLoughlin (31pts) and Adam McAndrew (28pts) contributing handsomely to the victory also.
“They’ve all played from when they were really young and today is a culmination of all that. All the preparation, all the competitions, all the days when it didn’t go for us, and it did finally today,” said Richard Doherty who had also guided Ballina to a fifth placed finish when qualifying for the final previously in 2023. But this time there was to be no denying the Mayo club as the hard work and outstanding commitment and team spirit shown by the players received the ultimate reward.
