BULMERS CUPS AND SHIELDS NATIONAL FINALS 2009: PHILIP REIDon a special week in Irish amateur golf that brings together club golfers of all levels and abilities.

DON’T MENTION the “R” word, at least not when it comes to the pursuit of a green pennant. This week, the Bulmers All-Ireland Cups and Shields finals take place at Tullamore Golf Club and, if the road to the midlands has been a winding one for the 20 teams who have reached the national finals, it has also been an expensive one.

It is estimated that some teams will have spent over €20,000 throughout the various campaigns - the Irish Senior Cup, the Barton Shield, the Irish Junior Cup, the Jimmy Bruen Shield and the Pierce Purcell Shield - and you can bet your bottom dollar that everyone, but especially club treasurers, will be glad that there is finally an end in sight.

These club finals are unique, and with over 20,000 club golfers involved from the start, this GUI festival of golf has the distinction of being the largest amateur competition in Europe.

And, as ever, there have been shocks and surprises and upsets along the way as fancied teams and “sure things” have fallen by the wayside.

This is new territory for a number of clubs, old ground for others. Galway, for instance, have a team of hardened players in their quest for a double - the Barton Shield and Senior Cup - made up of players who have been there before. Indeed, for Joe Lyons, Eddie McCormick et al, they only have to cast their minds back to 2007 for their last Barton Shield success and to 2006 for their last Senior Cup win.

Yet, the importance of a good underage coaching structure is exemplified by the rise and rise of West Waterford Golf Club, who have made it to the finals of the Senior Cup for the first time. The club was only founded in 1993, but the development of a strong youth programme has reaped very quick dividends and should act as an example to others.

The basis on the club’s emergence as a force in the game has been their commitment to junior golf which in recent years has landed six Munster pennants, three Irish Junior Foursomes and three Irish Youths’ championships. Now, they’re mixing it with the very best with a young team that is based around Seamus Power, a student at East Tennessee who has the distinction of winning three Irish Youths’ championships, and Mark Shanahan, who was unbeatable in Munster throughout the Dungarvan club’s road to the national finals.

THE COURSE: TULLAMORE GC

TIME has been good to Tullamore Golf Club, which has a parkland course - originally designed by James Braid and upgraded in recent years by Patrick Merrigan - that has evolved into one of the finest in the country.

This is a club with a storied history. The old clubhouse was destroyed by fire during the civil war in 1922 and the phoenix on the crest depicts the club’s rise from the ashes since those dark days. Braid, the famed Scottish course designer, was brought in to design the course on the Brookfield estate in the late 1930s and, then, Merrigan was given the task to upgrade it for the club’s centenary in 1996.

In carrying out that modernisation, Merrigan’s team moved over 70,000 cubic metres of soil with the most dramatic work conducted around the part of the course known as “the horseshoe,” where some seven acres of scrubland was transformed and now houses the “new” seventh and eighth holes.

One of the factors in the club using Merrigan to carry out the modernisation was his known affection for Braid’s work. In fact, Merrigan had done his university thesis on Braid, one of the foremost architects of his generation, and it is fair to say that the Scot would approve of the sympathetic manner in which old and new have knitted together on this fine parkland course which offers a variety of holes where trees and water come into play on many holes.

As it should be, the finishing stretch will ask tough questions of those in pursuit of a green pennant. The 14th is a dogleg Par 4 which measures 474 yards and has trees in play down the right while the signature 16th is another Par 4 which demands accuracy off the tee and on the approach as a stream cuts across the fairway short of the green.

THE TROPHIES: A BRIEF HISTORY

Barton Shield

Commemorating the former Golfing Union of Ireland president, the Hon Mr Justice Barton, the first club to win the Shield was Portmarnock in 1920. Clubs are represented by two foursomes pairings (playing off scratch).

Irish Junior Cup

Inaugurated in 1900, cup teams are comprised of five players of five handicap and over, playing matchplay (playing off scratch). John Ball Jnr is featured on the lid. A member of Royal Liverpool GC, Ball was British Amateur Champion in 1888, 1890, 1892, 1894, 1899, 1902, 1909 and 1912, runner-up in 1887 and 1895. He was also British Open Champion in 1890 and Irish Amateur Open Champion in 1893, 1894 and 1899.

Pierce Purcell Shield

The Pierce Purcell Shield: Named after Professor Purcell, one of Ireland’s outstanding golf administrators from the 1920s to the 1960s, it was won by Massereene for the first time in 1970. Five foursomes pairings represent each club, comprised of minimum individual handicap of 12 and minimum combined of 27.

Irish Senior Cup

Instituted in 1900, the Senior Cup is the most coveted trophy in club golf. Teams consist of five players in singles matchplay (playing off scratch). The figure on the lid is that of Fred G Tait. A member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, Tait was British Amateur Champion in 1896 and 1898 and runner-up in 1893, 1894, 1895 and 1899.

Jimmy Bruen Shield

The Jimmy Bruen Shield is named in honour of a great Cork golfer who inspired Britain and Ireland to their first Walker Cup victory at St Andrews in 1938 when still an 18-year-old schoolboy at Presentation Brothers. Jimmy Bruen captured the British Amateur Championship in 1946 and enjoyed many other notable successes before injury brought a premature end to the career of a man who is invariably remembered for his huge hitting off the tee and remarkable powers of recovery.

THE DRAW

Tomorrow

Barton Shield semi-finals

10.30 - Galway v Banbridge

10.50 - Youghal v Kilkenny

Irish Junior Cup semi-finals

11.10 - Castle v Oughterard

12.00 - Malone v Co Tipperary

Thursday

Pierce Purcell Shield semi-finals

8.00 - Corrstown v Douglas

8.50 - Letterkenny v Loughrea

Junior Cup Final(11.00)

Barton Shield Final(12.00)

Friday

Irish Senior Cup semi-finals

8.30 - Galway v Laytown and Bettystown

9.50 - Castlerock v West Waterford

Pierce Purcell Shield Final(10.30).

Jimmy Bruen Shield semi-finals

12.00 - Carrick-on-Shannon v Waterford

12.50 - Nenagh v Foyle.

Saturday

Senior Cup final(9.00)

Jimmy Bruen Shield final(10.30).