The Short Game

Today's other stories in brief

Smith leads Co Louth

The five District Champions - Carlow, Co Louth, Ennis, Galway and Royal Portrush - join this year's back-door graduates Laytown & Bettystown, Kilkenny and Roscommon in the national quarter-finals of the Suzuki Senior Cup at Milltown Golf Club, on Friday.

Current International Deirdre Smith leads the 2002 champions and number one seeds Co Louth into battle with an unknown quantity in Roscommon, who field Connacht champion Ailbhe Farrell and Girls' international Anne McCormack.

Helen Jones once again leads second seeds Royal Portrush in a most interesting tie with a young Kilkenny side ably led by double Irish champion Eileen Rose Power.

In the third quarter-final, former international sisters Philomena and Carol Wickham join a Laytown/Bettystown side who will fancy their chances against an under-strength Carlow team without sisters Karen and Tara Delaney, who have returned to college in the USA.

The final tie pits the Connacht champions Galway, with Girls' international Sarah Faller, facing Southern champions Ennis which sees the 2005 and 2006 Irish champion Tricia McDonnell make a welcome return to competitive golf.

All four quarter-finals will be played on Friday after which an open draw for the semi-final pairings will be made at the tournament dinner that evening.

Friday: 11:30 Royal Portrush v Kilkenny; 12.20 Carlow v Laytown/Bettystown; 1.10 Galway v Ennis; 2.0 Co Louth v Roscommon. Saturday: Semi-finals - 8.0 and 8.50. Final: 2.0.

Maguires dominate

The Maguire sisters' dominance of Junior golf this season continued last week when 12-year-old Lisa beat twin sister Leona by one hole to win the Flanagans-sponsored Leinster Girls Championships at Old Conna Golf Club.

Lisa, fresh from her semi-final appearance at the British Girls Amateur and subsequent selection on the Britain and Ireland Junior team to play the Ladies Vagliano Team in October, was in devastating form all week to not only lead the qualifiers but emerge as champion in yet another tournament for the under-18 years bracket.

Her twin sister Leona, having dispatched Girls International Sarah Cunningham in the semi-final, matched Lisa all the way on the outward nine in the final but couldn't maintain her momentum in the final stretch, losing the title on the home green.

Lisa's victory secures the 2007 Girls Order of Merit title, while Leona finished third behind Aedin Murphy (Carlow). Darcey Carr (Mount Juliet) beat Sarah Fay (Westmanstown) in the final of the Leinster Girls Trophy, while Sarah Helly (Enniscrone) beat Erin Connolly (Co Armagh) in the Plate final.

Tullamore in control

Tullamore take the maximum 5-0 lead into the second leg of this year's FBD Barton Cup final against Cill Dara on Saturday - first match at noon. In a thrilling first leg at Tullamore, three of the matches were won out the course, with the other two going to the 18th. Cill Dara will have to pull something special out of the bag to force a play off. Seán Flanagan and Noel Mannion beat Rory Clear and Pat Hopkins 5 and 3; Larry Larkin and Morgan Byrne beat Pat Doyle and James Dunne 4 and 3.

Dave Hughes and John O'Shea edged out Christy Roche and Kit Harken on the last green, while Eoin Flanagan and Fergal Scally beat Colin Hestor and Kevin McElhinney 5 and 4. Colm Cassidy and Joe Morris made it a clean sweep when beating Ger Hall and Pat Kelly on the 18th.

Westmanstown win

The inaugural running of the Ward Shield came to a conclusion at Hollywood Lakes last Friday with Westmanstown taking the overall honours. This new event saw seven teams of under-18 boys from the Meath and Dublin participate.

Run on a league basis, each of the clubs, Laytown and Bettystown, Sutton, Hollywood Lakes, Westmanstown, Ashbourne, Black Bush and Roganstown hosted the event.

And in a thrilling finish, Westmanstown became the first winners by just one point from Black Bush after seven weeks of competition.

The winning Westmanstown team was - Mark Lynch, Noel Larkin, Garret Goodman, Eoin Cullen, Paul Kelly, Shane McBride, Gavan Colton, Garrett Deasy, Darren O'Toole and Lorcan Goodman.

Sixteen-year-old Eoin Dolan from Woodrbook, topped a field of 63 players to win the Paul McGinley-endorsed Allianz Dublin Boys golf championship at The Grange.

Four-handicapper Dolan shot gross rounds of 71 and 77 for 148, just one ahead of Iarlaith Keane from Malahide (79-70) and Paul Dunne of Greystones.

St Anne's duo shine

There was home success for St Anne's recently when one of their up and coming young stars won the open mixed foursomes event, sponsored by Simply Mortgages. The title was won by Gerry Cottell, an eight-handicapper and Caoileann Mulcahy, who plays off 22.

Mulcahy is just 15 years of age and in the last year has lost an incredible 14 shots. She has only been playing the game for the past two years and has been making great strides.

In fact, the youngsters at the north Dublin club have been performing well in recent times as Mulcahy is well on the way to following in the footsteps of friend and clubmate Anna Courtney, also 15 years of age, who has a handicap of nine and played in her first interprovincial match recently in Portarlington.

Last Thursday Mulcahy and Courtney, along with Grace Power, ensured the St Anne's Girls team retained the Fingal Girls Team Trophy at Clontarf. St Anne's finished top of the league with Skerries a close second and Roganstown third, on what was their first outing.

Golden aces

They say lightning doesn't strike twice. But on the odd occasion it does . . . just ask those who play in Woodbrook GC's Plummers Society. The society is celebrating its Golden Jubilee and at a recent outing two members holed out their tee shots in the space of half an hour as Tony O'Brien and then George Carville were celebrating holes in one. No doubt there were double celebrations in the bar afterwards.

Ladies fourball semis

Mallow and Mountbellew are through to the All-Ireland semi-finals of the Miele Ireland Ladies Interclub Fourball following victories over Thurles and Birr in the south and west regional finals held at Mallow GC on August 21st. Mallow used home advantage to great effect when they proved too strong, 3-1, for a Thurles side making their first appearance at this latter stage of the competition.

Meanwhile in the western regional final, Mountbellew extracted revenge for last year's regional final defeat when they turned the tables on title holders Birr, also 3-1.

Mallow and Mountbellew join The K Club and Co Armagh in the final four. The semi-final matches will be held at Mount Juliet on Saturday, September 15th with the All-Ireland final taking place the following day.

Borris centenary

Borris GC in Co Carlow are celebrating their centenary this year and last Friday as part of those festivities Captains Ward Kinsella and Jo Byrne hosted a past Captains, past Lady Captains and past Presidents competition. Eleven Captains and Lady Captains from surrounding clubs were also invited, but also present were John A Joyce from Graiguenamanagh, Borris 's most senior past Captain (1950-'52) and past President (1979-'80) and past trustee, as well as Birdie Prendergast, the club's most Senior Lady Captain (1966). The club's 100-year history will be put into print later this year.

The qualifying round for the Joe Duffy Motors-sponsored Sutton Mixed Matchplay is on Sunday next. The top 32 pairs qualify for the matchplay starting on Monday. The time-sheet is available by contacting club professional Conor Russell at 01-8321703.