Our Under 15 team have taken a hard fought for point from the first leg of the Leinster Boys Under 15 final.
In nice sunshine this morning our first man out was Conor Dignam who won the first after finding the fairway bunker but from there was up against it. Conor didn’t quite have his A game today and was up against a strong player. A loss on the ninth had him three down at the halfway point on the course and further losses on the opening three holes on the back nine had him in real difficulty. A good win for Conor on the thirteenth stemmed the flow, but only briefly, and a half on the fourteenth saw the match end 5&4.
Ruadhán Murray was out second and was in a level match with no shots being given either way. He earned an excellent half on the first after being in trouble off the tee. He turned two ahead and an excellent par on the fourteenth got the match to three up. The long par three, fifteenth went to Blainroe after Ruadhán found the bunker off the tee and failed to get up and down ( his opponent made birdie in any event ! ) and sixteen was also lost after an errant tee shot from Ruadhán. On the par three seventeenth, the Blainroe man hit an excellent tee shot to ten feet and Ruadhán came up short of the green. An excellent up and down was enough to secure the half and to take a one hole lead to the eighteenth. Ruadhán made a good six on eighteen and when his opponent missed a five footer for par it was one all in the match.
Our last man out today, Toby Murphy was in good form today and striking the ball well but was up against a very strong player and was also giving four shots in the match. At the halfway point, Toby was one under par and two down, his opponent having birdied eight and nine, both with long range putts. Toby continued to play very well on the back nine and his chip in for birdie on fifteen got the match to all square with three to go. Unfortunately he was giving a shot on sixteen and his par there wasn’t enough to win the hole. He held a ten footer to keep the match alive on seventeen and won eighteen with a par to bring the match to extra holes. Back to the first, which Toby had birdied earlier, it was his opponent who made birdie this time around to win the hole and the odd point for Blainroe. Hard luck to Toby who finished his round at level par for nineteen holes.
So, all to play for in two weeks time when Blainroe come to Greystones for the deciding leg.
