Senior Foursomes Ladies Win All Ireland
Alison Taylor (2) Olive Shannon (15) Sally Casey (8) Noreen Farrell (10) Lily Owens (5) Rosemary Byrne (13)
Ursula Carlton (10) Sharon O’Connor (12) Trish Ryan (15)
Senior foursomes: hcp range +/- to 14 (individually), min combined handicap 14 no max.
The senior foursomes team is the lowest team in Malahide Golf Club in the Ladies section and as a club it is quite difficult for us to field a team in this handicap range so as a result the panel for this team was extremely limited and which emphasizes what a huge achievement it was for this team to win an all Ireland pennant.
The campaign started in Laytown Bettystown Golf Club. It was a stroke play qualifying round. The Malahide girls made it through to the match play and the next round was held in Dunlaoghaire golf club on the 6th and 7th August in terrible conditions. There were over 40 clubs represented at this stage from the eastern district of the ILGU both in Dunlaoghaire and Woodbrook Golf Clubs and it is especially difficult to qualify out of the eastern district, as it is the largest district in the country.
The first round on Saturday was played against The Castle and Malahide romped home easily with a 3 - 0 victory. Back again the next day for an early tee off against Royal Tara where both teams had to battle it out in heavy rain. But again Malahide was victorious with a 2 -1 win over Royal Tara. No time to rest on our laurels it was a quick bite to eat and some berocca to perk us all up before we met our old rivals Donabate. Malahide played a blinder we lost our first match, won the third match on the 18th but our second match battled to win on the 20th hole with Noreen hitting a magnificent iron from about 140 out leaving the ball about 4 foot from the pin, which got us through to the Leinster finals in Craddockstown on the 28th August.
We played against Dunlaoghaire in Craddockstown, which was a magnificent achievement as the Dunlaoghaire team were all single figure golfers and looked on paper a very tough side. But Malahide did it again beating Dunlaoghaire 2 -1 where Alison and Olive had a very convincing win beating their opposition 6 & 4 Lily Owens in her match sunk a putt on the 18th to save the day and guarantee us a Second Leinster pennant for this magnificent senior foursomes team.
All Ireland finals were held in Ardee on the 16th / 17th September.
We were to play Roscommon at 1.30 pm on Friday but the weather turned against us yet again and play was suspended until 5.45pm. But this team did not despair they kept their cool and got more practice in. Unfortunately the light only allowed us to play 6 and 7 holes respectively. We were up in two of the matches so not a bad position to be in. We returned Saturday to finish the match. The rain thankfully held off and the golf was fantastic with huge support from Malahide members.
The semi final was a very close affair. With the second match ending in favour of Roscommon and Malahide taking the last match. It was up to Alison and Olive to send us through to the final thanks to a magnificent chip from Olive and Alison sinking the putt for a nail biting finish on the 21st hole.
We maintained our momentum in the final against Enniscorthy (a side who were hotly tipped to win) Alison & olive were again in fine form recording a 4&3 in the first match to level the tie following an earlier win for Enniscorthy’s second game. There was never much separating the final pairings with enniscorthy moving to 1up after 13 holes but finding themselves 1 down after 15, only to level the tie on 16. Regulation pars for both sides at the 17th saw the teams all square playing the final hole. Lily’s well struck 6 iron from the tee found the heart of the green at the par 3 18th, while Enniscorthy came up short of the green and failed to get up and down, leaving their 8ft downhill putt agonizingly short. Rosemary left Lily a 3 footer, which as you all know was nothing to our Lily, she slotted it in with ease and Malahide were triumphant at last.
This is a historic and fantastic win and is the highest accolade for the ladies section of Malahide Golf Club. The team should be very proud and it was a great honour for us to manage this fantastic team. And what an amazing welcome home we received from all the members. The team was absolutely thrilled to do the walk of fame into their own club and the members have shown that a team is only as good as the support they receive from their fellow members. Thank you all so much for all your good wishes and support. The team would also like to thank John and Michelle Murray for sponsoring the golf balls on the final and the time and effort john put in to help prepare the girls. A big thank you to our Lady Captain Pauline and Lady Vice Captain Liz Lillis for our lovely new gear and who were a tremendous support to the team throughout our campaign.
Manager: - Ciara Smith / Maire Falvey