Paul Keane and his Barton Cup team went head to toe this afternoon with Bray in the opening round of the Barton Cup.
Paul had three matches at home but Bray always perform well in this competition so there were no chickens being counted as the match teed off. Dermot Whiston was looking after the home team today.
First out at home were Chris Boylan & Gary O’Connor. This strong pairing were three up through nine having won seven, eight and nine. They were pegged back to a one hole advantage by the fourteenth however and had to work hard on the fifteenth where they were in all sorts of difficulty but still managed to win the hole and get a little bit of a cushion.
Second out was the young pairing of William O’Riordan & Milo Doyle. The boys struggled on the front nine it’s fair to say and turned two down which became three down after the tenth. Halves on the eleventh and twelfth calmed the nerves a bit and some excellent play followed on the thirteenth and fourteenth to reduce the deficit to just one hole.
Our final home pairing was that of Murt Davis & Declan Murray, who found themselves two down after the first four holes. The fifth was halved and the pair had a good win on six, before losing the seventh. When their opposition hit their ball out of bounds of the eighth it was back to just one down and remained so through the ninth and tenth holes. Eleven went to Bray and twelve was halved. After Murt knocked down his drive on the thirteenth it looked like we were in trouble again but a good recovery shot from Declan and an excellent approach shot by Murt, coupled with their opposition finding water lead to an unlikely Greystones win. Declan’s tee shot on fourteen was a foot from being perfect but instead found the bunker Bray’s par was enough to win the hole to go back to two up.
Up the road in Bray Brian Murray & Walter Gilbert got off to a great start, winning three of the first four holes before the local Bray pair found first gear. Brian & Walter’s three hole lead became a one hole deficit by the tenth. The Greystones pair were playing great however and got their noses back in front with wins on thirteen, fifteen & sixteen.
Second out in Bray were David Byrne & Anthony Byrne. David & Anthony were three down after the front nine and despite digging deep with wins on ten and twelve ultimately lost on the sixteenth 3&2.
First blood to Bray 1-0
Meanwhile in Greystones Chris & Gary were glad to have a cushion of two holes when they lost the sixteenth to birdie before halving the seventeenth and heading down eighteen only needing a half for the point. Gary hit a great tee shot down the right hand side after watching his opposition find the middle of the trees behind the twelfth tee box. It took Bray three additional shots to get to twenty feet of the green but Chris got a flyer from the semi-rough and his ball landed on the path to the left of the green up against the hedge. After some debate, Gary played the ball as it lay and a tap in six was enough to win the hole and the match.
1-1
William & Milo were still going, sharing the spoils on the fifteenth & sixteenth before their opposition lost one ball off the tee on seventeen and followed this by finding the water with their second. All square heading for eighteen where both teams made par and shook hands before realising they had to move back to the first to try to find a winner.
As William & Milo were walking back to the first, Murt & Declan’s match was finishing on the seventeenth with a 2&1 loss, and word was filtering back from Bray that Brian & Walter had lost the tough seventeenth and were heading for the eighteenth all square.
2-1 to Bray
On the first in Greystones William hit a magnificent shot to fifteen feet while the Bray player could only find the rough to the right of the green and was faced with a very difficult up and down. He hit a good shot to be fair but was still ten feet from the hole and when Milo hit his putt to two feet it was enough to seal the match.
2-2
All ears turned to Bray where word came through that Brian & Walter were in bother on eighteen, fifty yards out in four with the Bray pair twenty five feet from the pin in three. Unfortunately for Greystones, there was no further drama and Bray secured the match win and the tie; 3-2
Hard luck to Paul, Dermot and all the squad.
