Our first match out today had our Jimmy Bruen team, managed by Pete Murray & Gavan McGirr, face a hardy Beech Park team. We had three matches at home which is always a bonus but as it unfolded the drama was at the away venue.
The matches teed off in the worst of the day’s weather. Our first pair out at home were Walter Gilbert & Derek O’Regan who got off to the worst of starts finding themselves 3 down after just five holes but, as this pair have shown in previous outings they are always well capable of a strong comeback. A half on the sixth steadied the ship and they played by far the better golf from the seventh, winning four holes on the trot to go one up through ten. Their opposition were no match from then on and wins on fourteen, fifteen and sixteen secured the match 4&3 for Greystones.
Our second pair of Keith Lewis & John Egan were always in control of their match despite being one down after the third and turned two up. Like the first match the lads played the back nine well and a win on the sixteenth closed the match 4&2. A second comfortable win and two points on the board.
Apart from these two matches however the garden looked far from rosy. Our third home pair of Paul Keane & Marc Hamilton started well with wins on the first and the third having them at one up but they were one down walking to the tenth teebox and they lost that also to go two down. A good win on the eleventh was followed by another loss on the twelfth. They remained two down after sixteen and needed to win the difficult seventeenth to keep their match alive. Paul had a tricky eight footer for par which narrowly missed and Beech Park only needed to two putt from five feet for a half and the match. The Beech Park man rolled the putt to a foot and the overall match was now 2:1 in Greystones favour and with the two away matches still alive.
Our first away pair of Colm Mulcahy & Eddie Davis were going like a train for the front nine, they were two up at the turn and won the tenth to have a nice three hole buffer. Losses on eleven and twelve however, made everything feel a little more uncomfortable. Our lads remained one up till the eighteenth and so needed just a for a Greystones win. Beech Park won the eighteenth unfortunately and it was off to the nineteenth.
Meanwhile our second pair away of Ray Crotty & Luke McLaughlin had fallen a bit behind and were stuck in a tight match. Turing one down Ray & Luke turned this score around with wins on the tenth and eleventh but came unstuck again loosing both the thirteenth and fourteenth to go back to one down. Standing on the eighteenth tee box the lads were still one down and obviously needed to win the hole to keep the match going.
Colm & Eddie halved the nineteenth and found themselves short of the par four second in two while their opposition were just off the green and ten feet from the flag in three. Colm was faced with a very tricky shot over the bunker but luckily had a decent lie and a little green to work with. He played a tremendous shot which ran to four feet. Beech Park’s chip left them a three footer. It was Greystones to putt first and Ed had held putts of similar length on both the eighteenth and nineteenth. He hit another good putt but unfortunately it lipped out and ran to a foot. In contrast to Ed, the Beech Park player had missed a three footer on the nineteenth and was now faced with a similar putt. Unfortunately for Beech Park he missed the putt and Colm slotted home his bogey putt to win the match and the tie.
Ray & Luke were called in on the eighteenth.
Another great Greystones win following on from the Irish Mixed team’s victory over Castle yesterday. Congratulations to all involved.
Unfortunately our Powerscourt Cup team came up a little short this afternoon in the final match of the weekend. We faced a difficult tie against Bray despite team manager, Heber O’Farrell picking a strong team. Our two away pairs were honors even with Gerry Browner & John Forde loosing narrowly 2&1 while Michael McNaughton & Michael O’Neill played great to secure an invaluable away point 3&2.
At home, our middle match of Kevin Smullen & John Burke found themselves one down playing the eighteenth and unfortunately lost the hole to put the tie at 2:1 to Bray. Our third home pair of Dara Cummins & Hugh O’Rourke turned two up but struggled on the back nine and were dormie one down as light began to fade.
Meanwhile, our first pair of Colm Drew & Michael McDonnell traded holes on the front nine to be as they started standing on the tenth tee. It was a similar story on the back nine and as the light began to fade they headed to the nineteenth to settle the match. As it unfolded, Dara & Hugh lost on eighteen just as Colm & Michael lost on the nineteenth. A valiant effort by all the team but it wasn’t to be our day.
