Honorary life membership for golfer Shannon
SHANNON Burke has been presented with honorary life membership of Ballinrobe Golf Club.
Shannon joined the club in 2008 as a junior and took to the game very quickly, showing an eagerness for instruction and hard work from day one.
She was following in the footsteps of her dad John and brother Michael, both very keen golfers, and under the expert instruction of Sean Whelan, PGA.
Shannon became junior captain of Ballinrobe in 2012 and represented the Connacht girls for three years from 2011 to '13. She also captured 2013 Leinster and Connacht Open Girls Championships and won her first cap for the Irish Under 18 team in July of that year. Also in 2013, she won her first senior cap for Connacht and has been the mainstay ever since.
That form won Shannon the prestigious Padraig Harrington Golf Scholarship in Maynooth from 2014 to '17, where she had more success, including the Irish Intervarsity Championship in 2015 and the European Intervarsity Championship in 2017.
In 2018, Shannon won the Carlow Scratch Cup and the Leinster Open Championship and played very well in other provincial championships throughout the country.
The senior Irish selectors chose Shannon for their panel and she has a proven record for the home championships which were played in Ballybunnion last year.
Somewhere amongst all of this Shannon managed to graduate from Maynooth with an honours degree in psychology and completed her masters in Jordanstown last October.
* Pictured at the presentation to Shannon Burke in appreciation of her great golfing achievements were, from left, club captain Tony O’Toole, Tommie Fahy (chairman), Shannon Burke and lady captain Eileen Conlisk. Photo: Trish Forde