GOLFING GLORY AS MITCHELSTOWN BRINGS HOME NATIONAL TITLE
Mitchelstown Golf Club are in celebratory mood this week after winning their first national title with a superb victory over Lurgan in the Irish Junior Cup at Castlerock. John Cahill, who holds 4 All-Ireland pitch and putt titles, went through the 8 matches unbeaten and was pitted against Lurgan’s Laurence McGrady.
The scores were close all day until Cahill clinched a birdie on the 17th hole. Next up was Adrian Gamble who won the All-Ireland title with the Cork Garda team a few weeks ago.
He defeated Michael McSherry 3/1. John Maguire (Mitchelstown) halved with David Magee and Clem Leonard (Mitchelstown) halved with Gareth Hanna.
However, it was 17 year old schoolboy, Sean Lane who clinched the title after his successful 30ft putt that secured him a one hole win over Philip Shaw.
101 YEAR WAIT
“The Irish Junior Cup started in 1910 and we’ve been a 101 years looking for it,” junior cup team captain, Stephen Slattery told The Avondhu.
“We’re still trying to get over it; this is a big thing for me. We made it to the Munster finals in 2008 but were beaten, so it’s great that things have worked out this year.”
“We had a group of 13 on the team, that includes caddies and myself, the team captain.”
Last Friday night the victorious club celebrated the team’s homecoming with a massive crowd turning out to welcome the team.
“It was a big night as it was a huge deal for the club. We won our first All-Ireland title and I think around 250 teams were in the running.”
BIG MORALE BOOST
The win proved to be a huge morale boost for the club whose numbers has been declining in the current economic climate.
“I suppose times are tough and we lost 100 members in the last year. However, this win gave us a reason to smile and proved to be a great boost for the club.”
Mitchelstown Golf Club have one more competition left this year, the Avondhu Shield against Fermoy next Sunday, “That will be our last big match and then we have the winter coming, so we’ll be back on form for February. We’d like to thank all our members for their support and especially for digging into their own pockets to make sure the team got to Castlerock,” Stephen Slattery added.
Published:
Friday 23rd September 9:45am
