McGeady comeback steals the show

South of Ireland Championship: As Michael McGeady trudged off the 14th green on the old course at Lahinch last evening, a large portion of the gallery simply decided that enough was enough.

Cold, wet and miserable, they deserted the last of the quarter-finals in the Shell-sponsored South of Ireland championship in anticipation that Noel Fox - four up with four to play - would complete the job and make up a stellar quartet for today's remaining matches in this oldest provincial championship.

Those who left, and few could blame them as the cold wind and rain borrowed from wintertime hardly made for conducive viewing, missed a comeback to match all comebacks. In demonstrating that the towel should never be thrown in, or a white flag raised, McGeady not only won the last four holes of his tussle with Walker Cup candidate Fox, he proceeded to close out the match with a birdie at the second hole of sudden-death.

For his efforts, McGeady - a colleague of Fox's on Ireland's European Championship team in Holland earlier this month - earned a semi-final encounter today with Mervyn Owens, while Colm Moriarty - the defending champion and a banker bet for a place on that Walker Cup team, which will be announced next week - continued his impressive form to earn an anticipated showdown with another international Justin Kehoe, the winner of the South two years ago.

McGeady, though, stole the show. On a day of relenting wind and rain, so bad that the quarter-finals had to be delayed for an hour, the 25-year-old City of Derry player's fightback from the brink encapsulated the old theory that a match is never over 'til it's over.

"I don't feel as if I've won," remarked a somewhat dazed McGeady afterwards. "I actually feel awful for Noel, it's a cruel game . . . I know, I've always been on the receiving end."

On this occasion, he wasn't; although the omens hardly looked good as he stood on the 15th tee, four down to the Irish strokeplay champion. "I just knew I had to focus on each and every shot," insisted McGeady.

Even when he won the 15th, where his opponent was in the rough off the tee, it didn't seem that it would rekindle his hopes of winning. However, when McGeady chipped dead for a winning par on the 16th - where Fox three-putted from 35 feet - there was the first indication that this match was not yet over.

On the 17th, Fox was again in the rough off the tee and was unable to match McGeady's par and, suddenly, from nowhere the match was headed down the par five 18th. Fox again missed the fairway and his second shot found the greenside bunker guarding the front left, while McGeady was on the fringe of the green in two.

Fox's bunker shot finished up 30 feet past the hole.

Still, when McGeady only half-hit his first putt, leaving it 15 feet short, it seemed as if the Portmarnock man had got a reprieve and he put his first putt stone dead. But McGeady then rolled in his 15-footer for birdie to send the match into sudden-death where he secured an unlikely win at the 20th, rolling in a four-footer for birdie after Fox's effort from eight feet hit the hole and refused to drop in.

Owens, a 22-year-old student in the University of South Eastern Louisiana, didn't require any such heroics in winning his quarter-final match by 6 and 4 against Noel Kavanagh. A player with a fine record as a junior, which included finishing second to Nick Dougherty in the Faldo Junior Series, Owens has yet to deliver on the senior stage but his progress here has been impressive and, after winning the opening three holes against Kavanagh, he simply ensured that he didn't make any mistakes.

If there were surprises in the bottom half of the draw, the top half went according to plan as the seeded players Moriarty and Kehoe - the champions of the past two years - progressed to the semi-finals.

Moriarty (24), who intends to turn professional after the Walker Cup, demonstrated his superb short game in crafting a one hole win over Michael O'Kelly, while Kehoe was three-up at the turn in his quarter-final with David Finn - whose fate on the 11th green where his ball initially stopped three feet from the hole only to be blown back over 30 feet to the front of the green graphically illustrated the tough conditions of the day - and eventually won by a 4 and 3 margin.

Fifth Round: M O'Kelly (Limerick) bt E Power (Kilkenny) 6 and 4; C Moriarty (Athlone) bt L Ryan (Stackstown) 3 and 2; D Finn (Mallow) bt B McElhinney (North West) 2 holes; J Kehoe (Birr) bt M Campbell (Stackstown) 3 and 2; N Kavanagh (Westport) bt M McTernan (Co Sligo) 6 and 4; M Owens (Mallow) bt J Morris (Mullingar) 4 and 2; M McGeady (City of Derry) bt M Rowe (Athlone) 2 and 1; N Fox (Portmarnock) bt R McCarthy (The Island) 5 and 3.

Quarter-finals: Moriarty bt O'Kelly 1 hole; Kehoe bt Finn ; Owens bt Kavanagh 6 and 4; McGeady bt Fox at 20th .

Semi-finals: 8.30 - Moriarty v Kehoe. 9.00 - Owens v McGeady. Final at 2.00.