Gents Competition Results

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.

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Our Best Cup team, managed by Pat O’Dowd and Joe O’Brien won 3 1/2 to 1 1/2 against Elm Hall this evening.

In a very tight match it came down to the last holes both in Greystones and Elm Green to decide the tie.

At home, Jimmy Hempenstall & Tom Purcell won on the thirteenth with Kishor Borkhataria & Barry Walsh winning on sixteenth.

In the last game in Greystones, Jim Kinsella, who was playing with George Hughes sank a twelve foot putt on the eighteenth to win the hole and secure a halved match.

In Celbridge, Joe Grennan & Martin McNulty lost 2up but Dermot Whiston & Quentin Teggin were the heros of the hour, with Dermot sinking a thirty foot putt to win his match on the final hole.

Well done to Pat, Joe and all the team.

Jim Wood & John Burke’s Pierce Purcell team were out this evening (18thMay) playing Foxrock in the second round of the competition.

The team saw just one change from the team that beat Hermitage convincingly less than two weeks ago in the first round with Colm Drew & Dermot Barry coming in for Gavan Campbell & Rod O’Shea.

Due to the vagaries off the GI Draw we had, once again, three matches away from home this evening so securing a win wasn’t going to be easy.

First out at home were Anthony Byrne & Neil Lawless who won the first and fifth to be one up, having lost the third, however this lead was reversed with Foxrock winning the sixth and seventh holes. The eighth & ninth were swapped and the match turned with the visitors one up.

Just behind them Andrew Nolan & Gary O’Connor, coming off the back of their excellent 6&5 victory in the Hermitage match, found themselves one down through eight but were playing well. They won the ninth to square the match and followed this up with wins on the tenth, eleventh and twelfth to go three up.

Meanwhile, in Foxrock Colm Drew & Dermot Barry led the Greystones charge but losses on the fifth & sixth saw them two down, but with a long way to go of course. Unfortunately Foxrock also won the next two and after a half on the ninth the match went to the tenth tee with Foxrock four up.

Robert Clarke & Michael Keating won the second to go one up but lost the third, fourth, sixth and eight to find themselves three down after eight holes. A win on nine steadied the ship, but only briefly unfortunately. Three further losses in succession on the tenth, eleventh and twelfth were the lads undoing and the match ended on the fifteenth, 4&3 for Foxrock.

Our anchor pair of Stephen O’Brien & Shane Power took up where they had left off when they last played together and were four up through seven, lost eight but bounced back straight away with a win on nine to be four up at the halfway point.

Gary & Andrew continued the dominance of their match with wins on the thirteenth and fourteenth (after an excellent tee shot from Gary to fifteen feet), to close out their game 5&4.

1-1 in the overall tie.

It soon became clear that the critical match was the first at home.

Colm & Dermot had battled back, with wins on the eleventh & thirteenth but the mountain they had to climb was just too high after the front nine and their match ended on the fifteenth by a margin of 3&2.

Similarly, Robert & Michael were unable to undo the damage done on the front nine and their match ended on the fifteenth, 4&3.

Our anchor match of Shane & Stephen had powered through to a fantastic 5&3 win away from home to level the match  at two all.

So…..2-2 and all to play for…..

Having turned one down, Neil & Anthony lost the tenth to a par to go two down but, to their credit persevered to bring the match back to all square with wins on eleven and twelve. The Greystones pair made a great half on thirteen, after having been out of position with their tee shot, only to lose fourteen to par to go back to one down. Another unlikely half on the par five fifteenth, this time benefiting the visitors, was followed by a similar result on the sixteenth.

On the seventeenth Neil split the fairway while the Foxrock man found the rough on the right hand side of the fairway. He played a nice layup and it seemed to be evenly poised when Anthony didn’t make a perfect connection with his ball and ended up thirty yards short of the water.  When it came to playing their third shot the Foxrock pair realised that they had played a wrong ball which resulted in a loss of hole and brought the match back to all square once again.

Off to the eighteenth, now with a full gallery…

Anthony’s drive veered left off the tee, as did that of his Foxrock opponent. As luck would have it the Foxrock drive was in the clear while Neil was faced with a hack out, at best, from heavy rough. Foxrock found the bunker on the right of the fairway, furthest from the green with their next while Neil was only able to advance his ball to a point requiring another chip out by Anthony, to be fair a good result given his lie. Anthony played a good shot and Neil’s approach from this point was long left. Foxrock only managed to find a similar position from the bunker – game on….

From where he was, Anthony played a good chip to ten feet and, when it took his opponents two more shots to be just inside him it looked like we were heading for playoff holes. As it played out however, Neil’s ten footer just missed the hole while the Foxrock man nailed his to win the match and the tie 3-2 to Foxrock.

A great match, down to the wire once again and hard luck to Jim, John and all the squad who have all put in so much work this year.

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