Karl Holmes’ Barton Shield team faced an extremely high quality Carton House team this afternoon on the Montgomery course at Carton House.
The combined handicap of the four Carton players was PLUS 13.3 while the combined handicap of our team today was 1.3, different gravy, as you might say.
David Byrne had to withdraw this morning with a back injury so Karl had called Shane O’Connor is as a replacement and had switched the team around.
Out first were Daniel O’Byrne & Shane O’Connor with Dylan Holmes & Jamie Anderson out second, in what was probably the youngest Greystones pairing ever fielded in this competition.
It became evident from the get-go that any mistake was going to be punished by the Carton team, and that if Carton did hit a poor shot they had the ability to recover with their next.
After nine holes both Greystones pairs were four down. Dan & Shane got one back on ten when Carton lost a ball in tall rough off the tee but eleven and twelve went to the home team to go five up. Behind, Dylan & Jamie lost eleven, to yet another birdie to also go five down. Holes unfortunately then ran out, with Dylan & Jamie halving twelve and thirteen and Dan & Shane halving thirteen and fourteen with the match finishing 10&9.
The day is perhaps best summed up by what happened on the 370 yard par four, twelfth. Dylan drove the green and his ball stopped twenty feet from the pin while the Carton player had hit a three wood which bounced short but shot forward through the green. Jamie was left with a nice look at an eagle two whereas the Carton player faced a tricky pitch to an elevated green (think of a shot from the right hand side of our eighth green, but to a much smaller landing area). The Carton man played a great shot from where he was to fifteen feet, Jamie’s putt slid by and was picked up for a nice birdie, and then Carton held their fifteen footer for a half !
This was a great opportunity to see, first hand, what an All-Ireland contending team at this level looks like, and, for our younger players to see what the next level looks like.
