Coffey eases herself through

Leitrim CUP winner Alison Coffey journeyed to the 14th green while Susie O'Brien had to travel one hole further to experience comprehensive victories in the first matchplay stage of the Lancome-sponsored Irish Ladies Close Championship at Co Louth Golf Club yesterday.

Coffey was rarely troubled against the Grange's Sheena O'Brien Kenney, winning five of the fist six holes to largely negate any possibility of an upset. Her opponent won the seventh but is was a temporary respite as Coffey won the ninth to turn four up and closed out the match on the 14th.

A strong easterly breeze taxed the competitors, the downwind holes no less arduous than playing into the teeth of the wind. The firm greens made holding the putting surface, wind assisted, very difficult.

O'Brien crushed Geraldine Ryan of the The Island 4 and 3 and will now face City of Derry's Niamh Quigg. Coffey will face Brigid Gleeson Healy in the last 16, the Killarney golfer enjoying a fine victory over former Irish international Hazel Kavanagh. One up playing the 18th she had to hole a 10-foot birdie putt for a half and a one hole victory.

Gleeson Healy confirmed: "I have been playing at this level for 25 years and the best I have ever managed is the quarter-finals at this event. I have never seen Saturday."

Arguably the best match of the day involved 18-year-old Beaverstown golfer Martina Gillen and fellow senior international Deirdre Smith, a Baltray member. Their respective fathers, Larry Gillen and Kevin Smith, were team-mates on the Longford side that won the 1968 Leinster Football Championship. Gillen prevailed at the 19th holing a 15-foot putt for birdie. The day's other main casualty was current international and Ulster Championship finalist Emma Dickson who lost 5 and 4 to Woodenbridge's Denise McCarthy.

Lillian Behan, the 1998 Close champion, effected a great escape when she birdied the 18th to take Eileen McMullan to extra holes, one as it transpired, with the former professional Behan, closing out the match at the 19th.