Mallow wait on Owens as they bid for Senior Cup glory

MALLOW Golf Club go in search of their second Bulmers Irish Senior Cup title in three years when they travel to Lisburn for this week’s annual festival of club golf.

Tue, 09 Sep, 2003 - 01:00

Charlie Mulqueen

They still don’t know if the recently crowned South of Ireland champion Mervyn Owens will be available. He is currently involved in a collegiate event for his university in Louisiana which also takes place tomorrow and indeed could go on to Wednesday as well. He will return to Ireland as soon as possible after the end of that tournament but whether he makes it to Lisburn in time for Friday’s semi-final against Malone remains in doubt.

“The cut-off point is Thursday although obviously we will give him as much time as possible,” said Mallow team captain Barry Thompson. “If he can’t play, then we will have a particularly young side with a couple of teenagers in Ian Spillane and Jimmy Walsh and Graham Conway who is 21 with David Finn and Tim O’Mahony providing the experience. The youngsters are all playing great golf and won the Irish Youths a few weeks ago at Portumna with plenty to spare so their form is not in question.”

Malone’s squad is even younger than Mallow’s although junior international Colm Montgomery is in the same boat as Mervyn Owens and unlikely to be able to get home for the finals from college in the United States. Malone, however, are captained by a wily campaigner in Rollo McClure, who is also hon Treasurer of the Golfing Union of Ireland, and he has great faith in highly promising golfers like Gareth Shaw, Andrew Boyle, Karl Gilbert and Paddy Deane.

The other semi-final should have involved the two Irishmen who helped Britain & Ireland to a historic third successive Walker Cup victory at Ganton on Sunday but Colm Moriarty has withdrawn from the Athlone side so as to launch his preparations for stage one of the European Tour School in a couple of weeks time. However, Noel Fox will turn out for Portmarnock, the tournament specialists with 17 pennants already to their credit. Athlone have yet to win the title.

The festival programme kicks off with the Bulmers Barton Shield on Friday in which three of the semi-finalists, Connemara and Banbridge, who clash at 8. 30am, and Stackstown, who meet Cork, have yet to capture the inter-club foursomes championship of Ireland. A Cork team composed of Pat Lyons, Peter Cowley, Tom Cleary and Denis O’Sullivan won the last of the club’s five Shields in 1990.

Lyons and Cleary are still very much to the fore and they will need all their experience to cope with a Stackstown quartet that includes a couple of championship winners in Mark Campbell (South of Ireland) and Michael McDermott (West). Derek McNamara backbones the Connemara side against Banbridge who include Richard Kilpatrick, who has been called up as a replacement to win his first Irish senior cap in the Home Internationals at Ballybunion next week.

With five trophies up for grabs and twenty clubs from all over the country involved, this promises to be another great sporting and social occasion.

Lisburn timetable:

Thursday: Barton Shield semi-finals, 8.30, Connemara v Banbridge; 8.50, Cork v Stackstown.

Final, 2.30.

Junior Cup semi-finals, 9.10, Skerries v Loughrea; 10, Castlerock v Clonmel.

Pierce Purcell Shield semi-finals, 10.50, Royal Tara v Thurles; 11.40, Warrenpoint v Gort.

Friday: Junior Cup final, 8.30.

Jimmy Bruen Shield semi-finals, 9.45,

Portumna v Castle; 10.35,

Malone v Mallow.

Pierce Purcell Shield final, 12 noon.

Senior Cup semi-finals, 1. 30, Athlone v Portmarnock; 2.20,