Tough Justice helps Skerries make history

National Cups and Shields finals: Pressure? It's hard to know if Lee Trevino was a better comedian or golfer. Of pressure, he used to remark: "Real pressure in golf is playing for $10 when you've only got five bucks in your pocket." Philip Reid reports from Lisburn.

Anyone who has teed up a ball in the Bulmers Irish Cups and Shields finals would no doubt disagree with the wise-cracking major champion because, as was adequately demonstrated in yesterday's national finals at Lisburn Golf Club, real pressure comes when the destiny of a green pennant comes down to the last man standing.

Ask Mark Justice, anchorman for Skerries. In its 98-year existence, the north county Dublin club never had so much as a whiff of a green triangle of fabric. And, if he didn't know this was real pressure, then the instructions from his caddie Frank Gannon, who knows a thing or two about golf at the top level, to "breath deeply" and "relax your fingers" as they entered the final stretch confirmed the high stakes.

And, as he had done throughout a summer's long campaign, which had seen him win his eight matches, Justice proved up to the task, but only after an enthralling encounter with Clonmel's own anchorman, Billy Hewitt. In ending that near-century-old barren statistic that had so haunted Skerries, Justice's win on the 18th green gave his team a 3-2 win.

The matches ahead had been shared. For Skerries, David Murray got the better of Gavin Smyth by 3 and 2 and David Garrigan was a 2 and 1 winner over Billy McEvoy, while Clonmel's points were claimed by Niall O'Reilly, who beat Kingsley Lewis by two holes, and Pat Johnson, who was a 2 and 1 winner over Alec Dignam.

Knowing Justice's strength at the bottom, Clonmel had moved Hewitt - a former Waterford senior footballer who plays golf cack-handed, with a grip left-hand-below-right - to the anchor role. The result was an intriguing contest of quality golf. Indeed, after they had shared the first five holes in par, things heated up and not one of the back nine holes was halved.

The initiative swung one way and then the other, but never was there more than a hole between them. An indication of the quality was Hewitt's mid-iron approach to the 15th, where he holed a 12-footer for birdie to level. Justice won the 16th, and Hewitt the 17th. And so they walked to the 18th tee - both two over - and looked down to the green guarded by bunkers front and right some 217 yards below them.

Both tee-shots found sand, but in different bunkers: Justice, faced with a 40-yard bunker shot with the flag perched on the top tier, knew that simply finding the green would constitute a good shot. He did.

But Hewitt, who had battled so bravely, had one of those moments he will want to erase from the memory as he suffered a shank out of the greenside bunker and missed the green with his next - and when he was still not in the hole in five, the time had come to shake hands.

And the time had finally come for Skerries to find pride of place on the clubhouse wall for a green pennant.

For Gort, their moment in time also arrived. Two years ago, the Galway club were beaten in the final of the Pierce Purcell Shield. Yesterday, they made amends in the same competition - but had to go to extra holes to fend off Royal Tara. Noel Murphy proved to be the Gort hero, holing a 15-footer for par on the 18th to get back to all square and, then, in partnership with Kevin Mulkerrins, beating Michael Moran and Allen Foley at the 20th to give Gort a 3-2 win.

If evidence were required of the conveyor belt of young talent coming on stream in Ireland, it was provided in yesterday's Irish Senior Cup. A Malone team - eldest player all of 22 years old - accounted for a Mallow team that included a number of teenagers, among them the increasingly impressive Jimmy Walsh.

Gareth Shaw, a member of the Britain and Ireland team that recently won the Leglise Trophy, Jamie McCracken and Karl Gilbert were the Malone winners.

In today's final, Malone - who haven't won the Senior Cup since 1955 - come up against the aristocrats of the competition, Portmarnock. who are attempting to win for the 18th time. Yesterday, Portmarnock - despite their Walker Cup player Noel Fox losing 3 and 1 to Mark Rowe - emerged 3 ½ to 1 ½ winners over Athlone, with Dermot Snow getting the crucial win when holing a six-footer for par on the 18th to beat James Joyce one up.

Castle - with a team including one 14-year-old and two 15-year-olds - were comprehensive semi-final winners over Portumna in the Jimmy Bruen Shield semi-final and today meet Greenisland, conquerors of Shannon, in the final.

Junior Cup final - Skerries 3 Clonmel 2: K Lewis lost to N O'Reilly 2 Holes; D Murray bt G Smyth 3/2; A Digam bt P Johnson 2/1; D Garrigan bt B McEvoy 2/1; M Justice bt B Hewitt 1 Hole.

Pierce Purcell Shield Final - Royal Tara 2 Gort 3: (Royal Tara names first) P O'Brien, C Loughlin bt G Cooney, C Duffy 1 Hole; M A Moran, A Foley lost to K Mulkerrins, N Murphy 20th J Kane, P Henshaw lost to G Broderick, D Samuels 1 Hole; G Toher, J Mitchell bt N O'Shaughnessy, N O'Shaughnessy Snr. 3/2; J F Byrne, J Bannon lost to M O'Grady, J Fordham 2/1.

Jimmy Bruen Shield Semi Finals - Portumna ½ Castle 4½ (Portumna names first) M Donohue, P Moran lost to R Kinsella, K Swaine 3/1; M Harney, G McEntee lost to B Gleeson, G Moran 2/1; D Hogan, S Robinson lost to J Whooley, B Kane 4/2; J Slattery, D Quinlivin halved with M Wilson, A Slaughter; M McGivern, T Walsh lost to J M Bourke, T O'Connor 6/5. Shannon 1 Greenisland 4 (Shannon names First) D Fitzgerald, D Flahive lost to G Pearson, J Logan 19th; J Corr, M Deasy lost to J Armstrong, J Warke 1 Hole; T Aherne, N Morgan lost to M Nixon, B McRoberts 2/1; M Deegan, E Logan lost to T Taggart, J Davis 4/3; R Flynn, J Culleton bt J Greer, I Knox 3/2.

Final (at 10.30am today) Castle v Greenisland - R Kinsella, K Swaine v G Pearson, J Logan; B Gleeson, G Moran v J Armstrong, J Warke; J Whooley, B Kane v M Nixon, B McRoberts; M Wilson, A Slaughter v T Taggart, J David; J M Bourke, T O'Connor v J Greer, I Knox

Senior Cup Semi Finals - Portmarnock 3½ Athlone 1½ (Portmarnock names first) Adrian Morrow bt K Sheedy 6 and 5; N Goulding bt Hugh Feeney 2 and 1; Noel Fox lost to Mark Rowe 3 and 1; Michael Brett halved with Padraig O'Boyle; Dermot Snow bt James Joyce 1 hole. Malone 3 Mallow 2 (Malone Names First) J McCracken bt D Finn 2 Holes; G Shaw bt G Conway 5/4; A Boyle lost to J Walsh 6/5; K Gilbert bt I Spillane 4/3; P Dean bt T O'Mahony 4/3. Final today (9.30): Portmarnock v Malone - A Morrow v J McCracken; M Brett v A Boyle; N Goulding v G Shaw; N Fox v K Gilbert; D Snow v P Dean.