Irish victors denied Triple Crown

FAILURE to complete the Grand Slam and win the Triple Crown for only the third time was something of a disappointment for the players and the galleries but Ireland still captured the Home International Championship and the Raymond Trophy at Ballybunion yesterday.

They fought back manfully from losing the foursomes by 3½ to 1½ to Scotland to take six points from the 10 afternoon singles to force a tie, 7½ matches each, and having already beaten Wales and England, were declared champions. It was their first outright success in the championship since 1991 and an outcome that delighted their outstanding captain Mark Gannon.

“Winning the championship was the objective from the outset,” Gannon insisted. “A Triple Crown would have been a nice bonus but no more than that. I always knew it would be desperately close and in the end we beat Wales and England each by 8-7 and tied with Scotland so that says it all.

“In fairness to Scotland, they prevented us from winning the grand slam by winning the 18th in three matches with birdies and getting up and down from sand in another to force a half.

“This is a great result for Irish amateur golf and I believe the future is very bright as well. Of this team, only Justin Kehoe is turning professional and the chances are that we will have Noel Fox available to us in the future. On top of that, we have a very good crop of young players coming along, guys like Cian McNamara, Aaron O'Callaghan and Gareth Shaw, along, of course, with the nucleus of this side. Every one of them were terrific and I couldn't have asked for any more.”

As it transpired, the 18th hole deprived Ireland of leaving Ballybunion with all the spoils. It looked a certainty the foursomes would end 3-2 in Scotland's favour until Stuart Wilson sank a 30-footer on the final green with Justin Kehoe one up and sitting pretty four yards from the hole. Mark Campbell, quite understandably, then missed for his birdie and the gap going into the afternoon had opened to two.

"We were feeling a little despondent after that," Gannon said. "But we had a chat during lunch and I told the players if they reproduced the same golf that beat England they could still do it. They were ready to go and I had a good feeling about the afternoon."

Such optimism was certainly well justified. Even though Noel Fox fell three behind in the top match against Andrew McArthur, he fought back to level the proceedings at the 16th only to lose the 18th and the match when his opponent, Andrew McArthur, who went through the series undefeated, sank a 12 foot birdie putt.

However, a lot of green figures were adorning the scoreboards and Mark Campbell gaining Ireland's first point with a 16th green success over Eric Ramsay.

Ulstermen Darren Crowe and Brian McElhinney had to fight rearguard battles against Jamie McLeary and Martin Laird and in the end both clung on for a share of the honours. But it might have been even better for McLeary got up and down from the bunker guarding the front left of the 18th green for a half and McElhinney, one to the good standing on the 18th tee, found thick rough on the left, had to chip out and was never in a position to challenge his rival's birdie.

It was then time for two more northern players, Richard Kilpatrick and Michael McGeady, to guarantee further points to the home cause. Kilpatrick won at the 16th against Bryan Innes and McGeady crushed Simon Mackenzie by 7 and 5. On the debit side, Mervyn Owens went down to Glen Campbell which meant that Ireland required 2½ points from the remaining three matches on the course for the Triple Crown. And such an outcome looked very much on the cards when Michael Sinclair battled his way back to level pegging with Neil McRae with a 20-foot birdie putt on the 16th and Mark O'Sullivan and Justin Kehoe were in control of their matches against Jonathan King and Stuart Wilson.

Sinclair gave it his best shot but was the fourth Irishman to come unstuck at the 18th where McRae hit a lovely shot to just over a yard and safely negotiated the birdie putt. At very much the same time, O'Sullivan got home on the 17th and Kehoe at the 16th and it was - more or less - mission accomplished by a spirited and well skippered Irish side.

Campbell was the only unbeaten member of the Irish side, winning three times and halving the other three while McElhinney had two wins, three halves and one and Crowe chipped in with three wins, two halves and a loss.

So Ireland are champions, Scotland were second, Wales third and England were left with the wooden spoon.