Pat O’Dowd & Joe O’Brien and their Best Cup team took to the course once again this afternoon to try to settle their semi final tie against Newlands.
The first attempt to play this tie had been partially abandoned last week when Newlands had to close due to heavy rain midway through the match.
On that occasion our Greystones course remained open and unfortunately, in horrendous conditions, our two home matches were lost, one on the seventeenth and one on the last.
To add insult to injury, as one of Pat’s away players was flying out of the country on holiday the very next day and would therefore not be available for the rematch, all three away matches were reset to zero and would be replayed from the scratch. When the matches were called in last Sunday we had been up in two and all square in the third after nine / ten holes. As they say ” they’re the rules” so Pat and Joe headed back to Newlands knowing that nothing less than three wins would suffice.
When the original fixture was abandoned, Dermot Whiston & Quentin Teggin had been five up after ten holes and this afternoon this pairing re-established their dominance and were three ahead after the first nine. This included wins on seven, eight and nine. They extended their lead with another win on ten and closed out the match with a final win on fifteen 4&3 after a fine performance.
Pat Tracey & George Hughes had also been ahead, albeit by just the odd hole, when called in after nine last week. They had been in a tight match and their re-match was just as tight today. Today, George & Pat were two down after the front nine, which became three down after ten but the Greystones lads were playing well and halved eleven through thirteen before throwing in a couple of wins on fifteen and sixteen to reduce the deficit to just one.
Emmet O’Brien played with Joe Grennan last week and had been all square through nine when their match was abandoned. Joe flew out on holidays on Monday and Pat O’Dowd replaced him in the final pairing out today. Unfortunately, Pat & Emmet got off to the worst of starts, understandable in the atrocious weather conditions, losing the first five holes before clawing back three with wins on the last three on the back nine. Still two behind, they lost the tenth and thirteenth giving themselves a mountain to climb and their Newlands opposition dug in and managed two halves on fourteen and fifteen to close the match out 4&3 and seal the tie.
Pat & George were one down through sixteen when called in.
Hard luck to Pat, Joe and all the team.
Details of the original running of the match are below for reference.
Match Report from 1st running of this match….
Our Best Cup team under the guidance of Pat O’Dowd and Joe O’Brien were in action after the Minor Cup team today, when they played Newlands in their semi-final. Pat was in Newlands looking after the away leg while Joe, assisted by Killian O’Dowd were looking after the Greystones leg.
This was a game of two parts for sure today. The weather conditions had worsened considerably as the day progressed, so much so that the Newland’s course had to close due to flooding of the greens and bunkers. When the away leg was halted, George Hughes & Pat Tracey were one up after nine holes, Quentin Teggin & Dermot Whiston were five ahead of their opponents after ten holes and Joe Grennan & Emmet O’Brien were all square through nine.
While Greystones has taken a hell of a lot of water over the past three days, all the drainage work of recent years enabled the course to remain open today, which was no mean feat.
First out at home were Michael Whelan & Jim Kinsella. Michael & Jim got off to a good start despite playing against, what appeared to be two excellent players, and were two to the good by the fifth tee. This early, two hole lead was reversed by the ninth and the deficit was increased to three after another loss on the tenth. As the conditions became wetter and wetter it was the visitors who seemed to be managing them better. Greystones’ wins on eleven and twelve gave hope but a Newland’s birdie on thirteen was followed by three halved holes for the match to be dormie two up to the visitors. On seventeen Jim had hit three good shots to be just off the back of the green, but with one of the Newlands players on in two the writing was on the wall. In the end a Newlands’ three putt for a five was enough to halve the hole and for them to notch up their first point of the tie.
Behind Michael & Jim, Tom Purcell & Jimmy Hempenstall stormed, into a four hole lead after nine, having played some excellent golf. In this match, once the weather came in, it most definitely turned the advantage from Greystones to Newlands. Jimmy & Tom lost the opening two holes on the back nine but steadied the ship somewhat with an excellent half with a par by Tom on thirteen where he was giving a shot. Thirteen was also halved but a Newland’s birdie two on the fourteenth followed by another Greystones loss on fifteen got the match back to all square. Sixteen was halved with pars after two excellent tee shots found the green, ten feet fro the pin. On seventeen, all four players found the fairway and both Newlands’ men and Jimmy hit good lay up shots. Tom, who had no shot on the hole hit a poor second shot (easily done in the conditions) but hit a fantastic recovery shot from 140 yards right over the pin to five feet. Jimmy, who had a shot in the match found the bunker behind the green while both Newlands players were just off the green. Jimmy was first to play and left his ball in the bunker but held his second bunker shot for an unlikely five/nett four which was sufficient to half the hole and to take the match to the eighteenth as the light was fading. On eighteen, once again, all players found the fairway. Jimmy’s second was heavy and came up well short while one Newland’s player found the putting surface albeit it ran to the lower level with the flag on the left of the green today. Tom caught his second heavy also and was left with eighty yards to the pin while the second Newland’s man was thirty feet from the green. Tom’s approach was to fifteen feet left of the hole, Jimmy found the green side bunker with his third and was, effectively out of the hole, while the second Newland’s player hit a similar shot to Tom but was just outside him.
All down to putting now….
Newlands #1 hit a decent putt from the lower level of the green to ten feet.
Newlands #2 got caught by the speed of his putt and raced it past the hole by six feet.
Tom’s putt ran out to an uncomfortable four feet past the hole.
Newlands #2 misses and picks up for six.
Tom misses and also makes six.
Newland’s #1 misses his par putt but makes his three footer for bogey to win the hole, the match and take Newlands into a two nil lead with nine holes or so remaining when play resumes in Newlands.
