Gents Competition Results

Congratulations to Brian Frawley, Ray Crotty, Collie Dunne and their entire Junior Cup squad on winning the Leinster South pennant for the Club this morning (29th July).

The match this morning was against Beech Park and was played in Wicklow Golf Club in sunny, but windy conditions.

First out this morning was Harry Kirk who had the very experienced David Byrne on his bag. Harry got off to a great start with a birdie on the opening par five to win the hole but looked like he might lose the second when he was forced to take a drop after his drive had found a drain up the left side of the fairway.  He managed a great half on the hole in the end and also halved the next four holes before winning the tricky seventh.  Eight went to Beech Park and it took an excellent sand save on the par three ninth for Harry to maintain his slender lead heading to the back nine.  Harry took the tenth and thirteenth but lost fifteen to a par to hold a two hole lead with three to play. An excellent birdie on sixteen for Harry closed the match out and earned a point for Greystones.

Like Harry, Jack McGovern also started his match with an opening birdie to win the hole and also made a great half on the second after his drive had found the first fairway.  With Ray Crotty carrying his bag, Jack won three and then made a brilliant up and down from the left  of the fourth to win the hole when he looked like he might well lose it. His winning streak then continued with further wins on five and six. Seven and eight were halved and it looked good for another win on the par their ninth when Jack hit a lovely tee shot to the back of the green.  The pin position on this hole was difficult today, to say the very least, cut as it was on the edge of a hill.  Jack three putted to lose the hole but still had a comfortable lead heading for the tenth tee. Ten was halved but Jack got back to five ahead with another win on the eleventh.  The next two holes were swapped and it was dormie for Jack. On fourteen, both were on in three but the Beech Park man was twenty five feet from the pin while Jack had hit a lovely approach to five feet. The match might have been extended after Beech Park held their long range putt but Jack had other ideas as he slotted home his five footer for the match and a 5&4 win.

Two nil to Greystones but this tie was far from over.  The bottom three matches had been no better than all square all morning and more often than not,  it was Beech Park that were up in them.

Our third player out was William O’Riordan who was not quite on top form today but was not going to give up easily. Will had Daniel O’Byrne on the bag.  His opening drive was lucky to stay on the course after heading right on the strong wind and his second went straight right into heavy rough. He played a good recovery shot just short of the green and chipped to ten feet but his opponent’s birdie won the hole and a Beech Park par on the second had them two ahead. Three was halved before Will got a win on four which was negated by an immediate loss on the fifth, where the pin was in a really difficult position for any approach coming from the right hand side of the fairway. Wins for Will on six and seven had the match back to all square but that tricky pin position on nine also got him and he was one down standing on the tenth tee box. Ten and eleven were lost but a birdie on twelve clawed one back for Will. A half on thirteen was followed by another loss on fourteen, three down with four to play.

Our last player but one today was Chris Boylan who had Keith McDonnell caddying for him. Chris didn’t begin his round too well and was two down after the third hole but he scrambled away and won five and six to get back to friendly. Seven was lost but Chris held a good six footer on eight for another win and then hit a beautifully flighted seven iron to the back of the ninth while his opposite number was just short of the green. It’s hard to describe the pin position on the ninth – think the trickiest pin position you can imagine on the Greystones fifth – both Chris and his opponent made good fours for a half! Ten was halved but Chris missed the par three eleventh left and failed to get up and down to lose the hole and then, despite hitting the better drive on twelve he also lost that hole to go two down. Chris and Keith stayed calm however and a win on thirteen reduced the deficit to just one.

Last out this morning was Toby Murphy who had Collie Dunne on his bag.  Toby’s opening drive found the second fairway, a reasonable miss today given the wind conditions (and the OB left off the tee !), his second shot however was also lost right but this time found the Irish Sea. His opponent made par and took the opening hole. Par was enough for a Beech Park win on two also but Toby steadied the ship with a half on three and then got a win on the fourth. Toby hit the best tee shot of the day on the fifth, down the left hand side leaving him a nice second shot. Golf can be a funny old game however as his opponent skulled his second only to see it run onto the green and then held a twenty footer for birdie to beat Toby’s par. Back to two down but Toby then won six and seven to get back to all square.  Eight was halved but nine was once again a bad hole for Greystones. Another three putt cost Toby the hole and he turned one down. On eleven the Beech Park man’s tee shot was just short of the green while Toby hit a brilliant iron, over the pin and it spun back to eight feet. Once again however the golfing Gods were not smiling on Toby and his opponent held his putt while Toby’s slipped by the hole. Two down.

So two matches in the bag but Will was three down on the fifteenth, Chris was one down on the fourteenth and Toby was two down on the twelfth. We needed a little spark from somewhere if we were going to pull this out of the bag.

Any of these three would be well capable of igniting such a spark but it was Chris who, on the fourteenth green held a twenty footer for par.  An enormous cheer went up from the Greystones supporters and it was clear that Chris had entered the zone.  His opponent missed a twelve footer from just off the green for his par and Chris was back to all square.  On fifteen, Chris drove first and found the light rough left off the tee while his opponent was in the fairway.  Chris played first and pulled his iron shot. He just about stayed in bounds but was left with an absolutely awful lie half way down a bank with little or no green to work with. The door was open for Beech Park, his shot came up short of the green and rolled back to thirty yards but it was uphill and relatively straightforward. His pitch ran past the hole by six feet and it was now over to Chris.  To be honest, Seve couldn’t have played the shot any better, Chris pitched the ball forward and it ran out to four feet. Beech Park missed their putt and Chris holed his – one up, and for the first time in the match. On sixteen both players hit decent drives, Chris up the left and the Beech Park man on the right with Beech Park away.  This is a tricky par five but his lay up was good, leaving perhaps a hundred to the pin.  Chris took a more aggressive line and, while he clipped a tree was still only left with forty yards to a back pin that was on the top level of a two level green. Beech park could only find the lower level in three while, for Chris, all those Thursday nights of wedge practice paid off as he hit his third to four feet. Greystones held, Beech Park missed – two up with two to play.

By this stage Will had lost the fifteenth and his match 4&3 and Beech Park were on the board. Toby had halved twelve and had scored a good win on thirteen to reduce the Beech Park lead to just one hole. Fourteen was halved in pars but fifteen went to a Beech Park birdie: two down with three holes left to play.

Back to Chris on the very difficult, par three seventeenth. This hole was playing into the teeth of the wind this afternoon. With water in front club selection was going to critical and Keith pulled a seven iron and handed it to Chris.  Chris hit what would have be a brilliant shot even under normal circumstances, to six feet whereas Beech Park’s shot found the back of the green leaving a tough thirty foot downhill putt.  The rest, as they say, is history, Beech Park’s putt ran eight feet past and they missed the one back, Chris rolled his to eight inches and it was shake hands time.

A brilliant five finishing holes from Chris sealed the tie for Greystones.

In his speech after the event, Brian paid tribute to the squad and to Ray and Collie for their hard work over the last eighteen months which got them the victory today. The team will next travel to Youghal, on July 27th, to play an All-Ireland quarter final against Monkstown.

Well done once again to all involved in the campaign.

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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.

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Congratulations to all those 2022 prize winners who qualified for The Haughton Trophy which was played for yesterday within Medal 5.

This Trophy is named after Ken Haughton, a past Captain and President of Greystones Golf Club, and is played for by the Captain’s Prize winner, The President’s Prize winner, Gold Medal Winner, The Golfer of the Year and the four Class Cup winners. It is played in the following year to ensure that it is played in qualifying conditions.

Ken sadly passed away in September 2022 but his memory lives on in Greystones.

Yesterday, Quentin Teggin, John Behan, Jimmy Hackman, Padraig O’Regan, Andrew Nolan and Julian Keown played for the trophy with President’s Prize winner 2022, John Behan coming out on top with a score of nett 66.

Congratulations to John Behan – Haughton Trophy winner 2022.