Castlebar in truly sensational provincial golf title triumph
Castlebar Golf Club has been crowned Connaught champions of the prestigious Mary McKenna Diamond Trophy for the first time, following a truly sensational triumph in the final against Gort.
Having won the home leg 3-2, Castlebar required a similar result at Gort Golf Club yesterday to seal the crown and a place in the All-Ireland finals at Woodenbridge, Co. Wicklow, next month.
But the loss of a number of Castlebar players from the previous round, including Carmel Moran, Margaret Tuffy and Ilish McGing, made the task more challenging when it came to team selection.
However, what transpired was a remarkable match in which Castlebar secured a famous victory against the odds.
Despite receiving the considerable boost of Deirdre Moylette and Mary Rose McNulty recording an impressive early win in their match, there appeared scant hope of Castlebar securing the two extra points they needed to deny a home side growing in confidence by the minute, following the pendulum swinging in favour of Gort.
Two of Castlebar pairings - Gina Kelly and Edel Burke, and Margaret Tighe and Betty Gannon - had both slipped four down following a purple patch by Gort and this left the Mayo side with a mountain to climb.
Castlebar hoped to reach a play-off decider, the early point secured by Moylette and McNulty having been cancelled out by the defeat suffered by Anne O'Sullivan and Ann Gallagher, despite a courageous battle by both O’Sullivan and Gallagher.
But the growing pressure building on Castlebar's fifth pairing of Sheila Baynes and Ger Lyons to gain the point that seemed certain to be required for survival was alleviated by one of the most dramatic, and most unlikely, comebacks in the history of the club. Four down with eight holes to play, Kelly and Burke succeeded in reducing the arrears to one on the 15th green, but lost the par three 16th, leaving them two down with two to play.
However, with fortune favouring the brave, they levelled the match with wins on the 17th and 18th before sealing victory on the first play-off hole thanks to the sweetest of pars.
A similar level of intrigue was unfolding in the match immediately behind Kelly and Burke, as the resilient Tighe and Gannon brought their encounter to the 19th after a similarly momentous fightback, winning the 18th after going behind on the previous hole. In their case, however, the destination of the Connaught title rested on the outcome of their sudden death play-off, a challenge to which the duo brilliantly rose on the dog-leg 19th.
The victory signalled joyous celebrations by the Castlebar players, officials and supporters, after a match that will live long in the memory.
Afterwards, team captain Maureen Collins, her vice-captain Merlin Clarke, and club captain Terri Fahey, praised the team on its resolve, spirit and never-say-die attitude.
Mary McKenna, arguably Ireland's greatest ever female golfer and who was awarded an MBE for her services to golf in June 2012, was also in Gort to present the Connaught pennant to the Castlebar team.