Woodstock celebrate

WOODSTOCK Golf Club from Ennis were celebrating last night after pulling off a superb victory in the final of the Chartis Pierce Purcell Shield.

They comfortably defeated Corrstown from Leinster 3 matches to 1, with one called in to claim the title for a second time.

Meanwhile, Portmarnock and Warrenpoint, two really powerful sides with a rich pedigree in inter-club golf, have qualified for this morning’s final of the Irish Senior Cup after winning their semi-finals against Muskerry and Co Sligo.

Woodstock, a club founded in 1993, combined brilliantly throughout the year to emerge worthy winners of the Purcell Shield. There were big wins for the partnerships of Jason Considine and Brian Mulcahy, Tom Hehir and Martin Dormer and Shane Fitzgerald and Michael O’Brien. Their previous success came in 2002 and Frank Doherty, Mike Kelly and Michael O’Brien now have two gold medals while O’Brien also has bronze and silver medals as well.

“We had an ideal blend of youth and experience and that was the secret of our success”, said joint team managers Eoghan O’Loughlin and Robert Dormer. “The guys who had been there before brought through the younger fellas and there was a tremendous spirit among the squad. For the last few weeks, we concentrated on playing links golf at Doonbeg and Lahinch and also came up to Castlerock for practice rounds and that all paid off handsomely. It also helped that we had some really tough matches on the way against strong teams like Shannon, Kanturk and Ballysteen and, of course, Thursday’s semi-final against Athenry. We were battle hardened.”

Warrenpoint, who captured the Barton Shield on Thursday, will start slight favourites for the Senior Cup after the manner in which they accounted for Co Sligo in yesterday morning’s wind and rain at Castlerock.

It was a strange affair in that Michael Durcan won the top match for the Rosses Point club by 6 and 5 against Paul Reavey and Barry Anderson was three up on Stephen Coulter after eleven when they were called in.

By that stage, however, Warrenpoint had romped home thanks to David Barron, Colm Campbell junior and Ryan Gribben, all of whom won out in the country. Warrenpoint last captured the Blue Ribband at Monkstown in 2008 and are now poised to claim the title for the fourth time.

Portmarnock, of course, have been Senior Cup specialists almost since the event was instituted in 1900. They enjoyed their first success in 1904 and this morning will be chasing their 15th victory in this fiercely contested competition. John Greene, winner of the South of Ireland last year, made his first appearance in the Senior Cup for Portmarnock and proved a very valuable addition to their ranks.

They had their troubles at the top of the order against Muskerry for whom Irish international Niall Gorey was an early winner as he maintained a rich vein in form this year when beating Geoff Lenehan by 4 and 2. John Waldron also finished strongly for the Cork side after he holed a battling 18 footer for a half at the 17th and then got down in two from short of the final green for a winning par against James Fox.

After that it was Portmarnock all the way with Greene, Michael Brett and Niall Goulding all winning against David O’Donovan, Ronan Twomey and Daniel Hallissey at the 16th.

There was a dramatic finish to both Jimmy Bruen Shield semi-finals. Warrenpoint’s bid for a hat-trick of titles ended at the 19th when Tom Bent and Mick Timmons won the crucial third point for Forrest Little against the northern side’s Hudson McGuffin and Jason Pepper.

Faithlegg bowed out in similar circumstances when Ger Noone and Martin Higgins got home at the first tie hole against Alan Roche and Noel O’Keeffe to make it 3-2 in favour of Claremorris.