Bourke gives Masters class at Glasson

Mitsubishi/Irish Times Ladies' MastersIn 1993, Tom Reid, a second-generation farmer and his wife, Breda, decided to completely change their way of living. Out went the 2000 sheep and 300 head of beef cattle and in came Christy O'Connor junior with a few ideas about how a golf course should look.

Sitting in front of their period house and lazily peering down the Glasson Golf Hotel and Country Club's 18th fairway over the shimmering Lough Ree, you'd have to suspect the Reids experienced an epiphany.

Still, scoring 45 stableford points, Noelle Kiely could be forgiven for thinking her game itself was a revelation in last week's semi-finals of the Mitsubishi Motors Irish Times Ladies' Masters. And yet in a further moment of truth she would find that the total was just good enough for second.

On a perfect summer's day, Kiely's mark was bettered by Jenny Bourke from Curra West, who came in with 47 points, a three-hole stretch of par, par, birdie from the fifth offering up 12 points to underpin the huge total. A birdie on the 438-yard seventh yielded five points alone.

In all, 30 women came through for another day out at Glasson - ten from Leinster and Munster and ten from Connacht/Ulster - and they will play in the final on August 18th, when Christy O'Connor jnr will again conduct, in his inimitable style, a pitching clinic on the par-three 15th.

" We're thrilled to see how popular the Mitsubishi Motors Irish Times Ladies' Masters has become nationwide since its inception five years ago," said Mitsubishi's Aoife Garvey. The level and quality of competition this year to qualify for the semi-finals and finals was astounding and we look forward to a terrific final in Glasson on August 18th."

Bourke, a former hockey player with Dublin's Pembroke Wanderers, accumulated the 47 points despite blanking out on the par-four 12th. She also hit the longest drive of the day, but because she won the overall semi-final prize, that honour went to Kathleen Fanning from Ballyhaunis.

"Since the beginning of the summer I started playing in competitions," said Bourke, a 25-handicapper. "I got the bug. I've definitely got the bug. My friends think I'm mad."

And as for nerves: "I don't remember my card. I don't even remember how many pars I got. I don't think of playing a round like that because then you start to get excited if you think you're doing well."

Kiely was just one over par gross for the front nine in a superb start. Her colleagues reliably inform us that, playing off a 13 handicap, she will be around 10.7 for the final and that she has recently had quite a spectacular handicap tumble, coming down from a 16 to 10.7 in just four weeks.

"I had a (practice) round here the day before and I think it helped," she said. "You just get to know where bunkers are and where the trouble is around the course. This is the first year I've actually played golf properly. I used to play hockey, racquetball and tennis, a little bit of everything. I took up golf when I was a kid but it was too slow for me. I was more into active sports but I came back to it about seven years ago. Today was great but that might not happen again for a while."

From Mitchelstown but running the Energy Health and Fitness gym in Knocknacarra in Galway, the 28-year-old hopes eventually to move into single figures. Given the way she has been playing that could easily happen with her next round.

"We haven't had a Senior Cup team in our club for quite a long time so our aim is to do that. There are a few of us now who are on the brink of maybe doing it next year. We'd love to do it," says Kiely.

Third on the day was Stackstown's Dolores Nulty, who came in with 41 points off a handicap of 25, while 22 points was enough to earn Newbridge's Kate Stafford the front nine. Liz Grey's 23 points won her the back nine with Gráinne McManus winning nearest the pin. Her ball travelled over the reeds, moorhens and water, finishing seven feet and seven inches from the hole, with Liz Grey just three inches outside it.