Galway suffer cruellest of days

GOLF/ALL-IRELAND CUPS AND SHIELDS : The temptation to count chickens before they hatch can be irresistible. At one stage yesterday, Galway Golf Club looked firmly on course to secure a notable double in the Barton Shield and the Irish Junior Cup.

By day's end, just like their hurlers, they were left licking their wounds and wondering where it had all gone wrong as they left the Bulmers All-Ireland Cups and Shields empty-handed on both counts.

On a strange old day, when a wicked squall enveloped the Rosslare links and rubbished any notions of a microclimate in the so-called sunny southeast, Galway were the fall guys as, firstly, Warrenpoint staged a quite remarkable fightback to claim their fourth Barton Shield, and then Fortwilliam rubbed salt into tender wounds by usurping the westerners in the Junior Cup.

Despite the atrocious weather, the Barton Shield - a unique foursomes competition in which the combined holes-up score determines the winner - produced a wonderfully high standard that was decided only by extra holes.

In the top match, Warrenpoint's Barrie Trainor and Paul Reavey were six-under-par to win by just one hole over John Neary and Eddie McCormack, while the bottom match saw Jim Carvill and Colm Campbell lose by the same margin to Joe Lyons and Mark O'Sullivan.

So that second match was forced into extra holes, and, wouldn't you know it, the Warrenpoint pairing of Carvill, who won the East and the South of Ireland this season, and Campbell completed the comeback by winning the match at the 20th.

"It doesn't come any harder than that, does it?" wondered Warrenpoint manager Paddy O'Hanlon, adding: "This is what I love about sport, where players have will, strength, conviction and talent and go out and express it. I don't know if there's ever been a better Barton Shield final than that one."

The story goes like this. For much of the final, Galway held a firm grip on the old trophy. They were two up after 15 holes in the top match, and two up after 17 in the second match. Then, when a squall unleashed its venom, it all went wrong. When Neary played his approach to two feet for a birdie at the 15th to put Galway two up, it seemed they were well on the way to another green pennant.

The response from Warrenpoint was incredible. Reavey hit his approach to 12 inches for birdie on the 16th, Trainor hit his approach to six inches for another birdie at the 17th, and then Trainor played his approach on the 18th in to four feet for another birdie. The match had been turned on its head, and Warrenpoint won by one hole.

Still, with the last match coming down the 18th, and Warrenpoint in trouble after Carvill hooked his drive, the initiative looked to be with Galway. But there was a fierce determination about the Down men, and, after O'Sullivan had failed with his 18-foot par putt, Carvill rolled in a 15-footer for par to win the hole. Although they lost the match by one hole, that putt kept them alive.

On the first tie hole, it again looked as if Galway would prevail when they were just off the green in two. Carvill had tried to chase in a three-iron approach into the teeth of the wind, but it had finished some 40 yards short of the green. When Campbell played his approach to eight feet, it left Carvill with an uphill putt to again keep the match going.

"My putting hadn't been great but, in these situations, I always feel that I can make them," he observed. And, again, that is exactly what he did.

The match finished at the 20th. On the 198-yard par three second, Carvill's tee-shot hit the front of the green and skidded by the hole and just off the edge of the green. But O'Sullivan's shot was left and got a vicious kick for good measure. Lyons's pitch ran through the green, and when Campbell rolled his putt stone dead, O'Sullivan knew he had to hole his pitch. It was a brave effort, but it hit the hole and stayed out; and that summed up Galway's day.

In the Junior Cup final, Fortwilliam emerged as 3-2 winners after a rare tussle. Gary Brown - who beat Jonathan Hehir at the 19th - Gary O'Hara and Michael Tierney won. The honour of securing the trophy was Tierney's, who won the 18th in par but had to watch as his opponent Eddie Mulholland's par effort hit the hole but refused to drop.

Remarkably, Galway still have one last shot at a pennant as they compete in the Senior Cup semi-finals this morning against North West.

There was considerable drama in the Pierce Purcell Shield semi-finals, where Castleblayney's 3-2 win over Black Bush was hard-earned. Martin Rafter holed an 18-footer on the last to force tie holes, and then secured the win with a birdie on the 20th after his partner, Michael Fee's tee-shot finished 12 feet from the hole.

Castletroy defeated Portumna by 3 ½-1 ½.