Roscommon take the hard road to Algarve

The chances were as slim as, well, most of us being able to hole out with a bunker shot - but, despite the significant increase in the number of clubs who participated in this year's second staging of the Musgrave Crumlin Children's Hospital Club Challenge, two defending provincial champions were almost successful in retaining their titles.

They went extremely close but, in the end, it didn't come to pass for Galway - the inaugural Connacht and All-Ireland winners last year - who lost out to host club Roscommon on countback in the Connacht final, while Clonakilty club Dunmore were also beaten on the same countback system by Limerick County in the Munster final at Beaufort.

So, four newcomers to the national finals will participate in the Algarve region of Portugal on October 2nd-9th: Gracehill and Dublin Mountain had previously won the Ulster and Leinster sections respectively, and the success of Roscommon and Limerick County completes the four finalists.

In a competition approved by the R & A for payment of expenses, the four teams will now fly out to Portugal and stay at the four-star Almansor Hotel from where they will fight it out for the national title over the superbly appointed courses at Villamoura, Pinta (twice) and Salgados with the aggregate total from the four days of competition deciding the destination of this year's winners.

Certainly, Roscommon must be getting an inkling at this stage that their names are possibly on the trophy. In their club qualifying competition, the team of Paula Quinn, Kevin Henry and Charlie Farrell only made it through to the provincial finals when their closest challengers missed a short putt on the 18th green. And, in the Connacht final, there was a sense of deja vu when a Galway player missed a two-footer on the same green that would have given the defending champions a ticket to the sun.

"To be honest, we didn't think we had done enough to win out," remarked Farrell of his side's success, "and, rather than blaming anyone afterwards, we were all blaming ourselves because each of us had missed a number of short putts in the round." The reason for such pessimism until the result was announced was that Roscommon had accumulated 89 points in winning their club qualifier, but only returned 80 points in the Connacht final.

All single handicappers, with plenty of inter-club experience, the winning team of Quinn (7), Henry (6) and Farrell (8) made a strong start by notching up 16 points over the first six holes of the rumble competition when just one score at each hole counted. However, by the turn, they had fallen two points behind Galway, who were to prove their main challengers.

Ultimately, the final two holes - by which stage all three players' scores counted - proved crucial to determining the winners. The Galway team of Padraic O'Connor, Pat Kelly and Bert O'Connor could only muster a total of three points at the seventh (where all three recorded gross bogeys) while, in contrast, Roscommon's trio all recorded pars for a total of six points. A three point swing.

And, then, at the last hole, two pars from Quinn and Henry, who had a shot, and a bogey from Farrell enabled them to grab seven points compared to six for Galway. It gave Roscommon a backnine of 51 points to Galway's 49, and secured their ticket to Portugal by the toughest way possible.

In Beaufort, there was plenty of drama too. Indeed, it took a storming finish by the Limerick County team of John Deegan (11), Walter Shanahan (11) and Mike Garry (14) to edge out the Dunmore team of Dan Lyons (13), John Finn (16) and Brian Hughes (17) for the Munster crown.

Playing the last hole, a par four of 392 yards, the men from Limerick County were actually three points adrift of Dunmore. However, Shanahan and Garry both manufactured pars (nett birdies) and Deegan had a bogey (nett par) for a total of eight points. In contrast, Dunmore only managed five points between them on the 18th.

It meant that both teams finished on 84 points, but Limerick County booked the trip to Portugal for the national finals by virtue of their better back-nine, 52 points to Dunmore's 50. Waterford Castle, who featured club vice-captain Robert Walsh along with Dermot and Thomas Coffey on their team, finished third with 81 points.

Interestingly, three of the four finalists are relative newcomers to golf. Limerick County, Dublin Mountain and Gracehill were all affiliated to the GUI in 1994, while the oldtimers of the quartet are Roscommon who trace their roots back to 1904 when the club was founded.

The annual Country and Western Senior Scratch Cup at Mount Temple golf club in Moate will be held on Sunday next when the holder Dinny White will tee up in defence of a title he won last year with a score of 73. This is the fourth year of the AIB Bank-sponsored event and as yet the par of 72 has not been broken in either of the yearly Scratch Cups. Some times are still available on the timesheet - call Michelle at 0902-81841.