Shanahan the inspiration of Limerick win

He stood over the putt and, for once, the blade let him down. But there was no display of angst, only a wry grin and a wave to those gathered by the 18th green at Pinta Golf Club - near the Algarve village of Carvoeiro - where olive trees with authenticated lifelines of 1,200 dot the final fairway and, in all that time, had experienced nothing like the roars that greeted the winners of the 1999 Musgrave Crumlin Children's Hospital InterClub Challenge, supported editorially by The Irish Times.

Walter Shanahan's missed four-footer and the subsequent tap-in were the last strokes of a long, hard four days of battle. All the work had been done before Shanahan (10) and his Limerick County team-mates of John Deegan (10) and Mike Garry (13) ventured onto the 18th green at Pinta for the second time in a week. By then, the lead was insurmountable and the hardened campaigners became only the second winners of a competition which has the potential to grow even bigger.

"I suppose we got off to a really good start and consolidated our position every round thereafter," remarked Deegan. And, indeed, that was how the competition panned out. From day one, Limerick County, the Munster champions, jumped into the lead and the other representatives Dublin Mountain (Leinster), Gracehill (Ulster) and Roscommon (Connacht) were forced to play a game of catch-up, ultimately in vain.

In the end, there were to be no heroics from the other competitors; no Van de Velde-like collapse from the Limerickmen. The four-day format had the teams firstly play Pinta (two singles cards counting), followed by Salgados (one score front nine, two on the back) then Vilamoura Old (all three singles cards) and, finally, back to Pinta for the rumble. When the dust had settled, Limerick County finished clear winners, on 312 points, with Gracehill (290 points) pipping Dublin Mountain (288 points) for second with Roscommon (263 points) taking up the rear.

In his hurling days with Limerick, Shanahan was known as a fiercely competitive player. "He plays his golf exactly the same way," said his colleague-in-arms Garry. And, on that first day in Pinta, Shanahan, who only took up golf in 1990 when he finally got around to hanging up his boots with the South Liberties club, was very much the strong man. His stableford total of 39 points was the best-of-the-day and, allied with Garry's 33 points, gave Limerick County a total of 72 points, fully 10 points clear of their closest challengers Roscommon.

By their own acknowledgement, Gracehill and Dublin Mountain were a little nervous on their first ventures into national competition and returned totals of 59 points and 53 points respectively. It left them with virtual mountains to climb, but they made brave efforts to respond over the following days.

Indeed, after the second day of competition at Salgados, a flat seaside course which features water on 16 holes with a large emphasis on course management, Gracehill and Dublin Mountain had leapfrogged over Roscommon. In fact, Gracehill had the distinction of adding the most points to their total: a day's return of 66 points to Dublin Mountain's 65 and Limerick's 63 with Roscommon's trio of single handicappers - Paula Casey, Charlie Farrell and Kevin Henry - struggling to 55 points meant only a slight change in the order.

But, at the top, Limerick County still enjoyed a nine points lead over their now closest pursuers, Dublin Mountain's trio of Eamon Haughton, Pat "The Pocket Rocket" Purcell and Niall "Cannonball" O'Reilly.

Vilamoura old course was always going to have a huge impression on the final outcome, and it did - although Gracehill demonstrated their potential by accumulating the second highest total behind Limerick County, thus enabling them to move to within three points of second placed Dublin Mountain.

Three years ago, Randall McDonnell, a former goalkeeper with Antrim hurlers who has quickly fallen to a six-handicapper, and Norman Heggarty joined Gracehill Golf Club on the same day. And, together with Norman's brother Michael, they grew in confidence as the week progressed and brought in a total of 97 points on the course which, in the past, has played host to the Portuguese Open on the European Tour.

But, once again, Limerick County were the team to impress most of all. Deegan featured an eagle three on the 493 yards Par 5 fifth which he reduced to a five-wood tee-shot and four-iron approach to four feet on his way to 33 points; Garry again showed his consistency with a solid 32 points, and Shanahan had a birdie and nine pars on his way to 37 points. Their team total of 102 points in Vilamoura stretched the lead over Dublin Mountain to 18 points, and left them in a virtually invincible position heading into the final day's play at Pinta.

They didn't slip up.

In many ways, the most competitive battle on the final day was for the runners-up position with Gracehill nudging out Dublin Mountain by virtue of their score on the last two holes. Gracehill finished with six points on the 17th and then McDonell McDonnell birdied the long 600 yards finishing hole to aid his team to a tally of eight points while Dublin Mountain finished three-seven, to leave them two short of the Ulstermen.

But Limerick County were the essence of consistency, with no nerve-induced disasters ever likely in the Portuguese air. Their final round rumble score of 75 points was, indeed, the best of the four teams and merely served to underline their superiority in the competition.

"We came to Portugal with a mission, not just to chase victory but to enjoy ourselves also," said Shanahan. "And we did."

The four provincial winners had earned the right to compete in the national finals in the Algarve by winning their respective qualifying competitions and, in its two years, the Musgrave Challenge has raised over £100,000 for Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin.

Musgrave Managing Director Seamus Scally said he hoped the competition would continue to grow and appealed to returning teams to "spread the word for a very worthy cause."