After two successive losses in the Leinster final of the Under 15 Boys, Greystones won the pennant yesterday ( Saturday 7th October ) after a brilliant performance from the team.
Heading into the second leg of the final with a 2-1 deficit our lads made home advantage count as they beat a very good Blainroe team in a playoff.
Ben Crowley managed the team until he turned Pro last month and since then George O’Brien has been the man on the course with the team, both overseen by Head Professional, David Lewis.
There was just one change made after the first leg, the in form, Dylan Cavazza coming in for Conor Dignam, who had contributed throughout the campaign . Ruadhán Murray and Toby Murphy retained their places on the team for the home leg. Conor and Tom Murphy were subs on the day.
Dylan, who was getting four shots in his match, was out first on Saturday and got off to a great start, two up through three. He lost the fourth but from there he played fantastic golf and it was clear from early on that there was only going to be one winner of this particular match. Five up through nine became six up through eleven, before the match closed with a 7&5 victory for Dylan on the thirteenth. An excellent performance.
Out third was Toby Murphy. Toby had been a member of the team who lost out to Roganstown in the final last year and it was obvious that he was going to do his damndest not to loose his match this year. He was giving four shots but was on fire. Toby turned three up and was three under on his own card when he closed his match 6&5 on thirteen, after an almost flawless performance.
Our second match on Saturday had Ruadhán Murray matched up against the same Blainroe player that he had beaten on the eighteenth two weeks ago to win the all important away point in the first leg. The Greystones leg was just as tight in this flat match. Ruadhán got to two ahead with an excellent par on the sixth but losses on eight and nine had the game all square heading to the back nine. The back nine started in the same vein with ten and eleven halved before Ruadhán got his nose ahead once again with a good win on twelve. A narrowlly missed four foot, par putt on thirteen squared the match once more before an excellent par putt on fourteen had Ruadhán ahead again. Fifteen and sixteen went to Blainroe and the golfing Gods were obviously looking down on the Blainroe player as his ball skipped across the water on seventeen, finding the bunker behind the green. Ruadhán had been in trouble off the tee and when his opponent played an excellent bunker shot for a tap in par the game was done 2&1 and the overall tie was 3-3.
Toby, who had been hitting balls since his early finish was ready to go on the first tee for the three hole playoff. Josh, his opponent, missed the green right while Toby hit his iron to twelve feet and had a picky up par to go one up. On the second Toby split the fairway with a great drive leaving himself not much more than a hundred yards to the pin. Josh, meanwhile was in the left rough and was only able to find the right rough with his recovery shot. Toby hit a beautiful iron to ten feet and, with two for the win it was game over – a brilliant performance.
This pennant win means that our Junior Boys have won the three major Leinster titles this year, Under 15, Junior Foursomes and Fred Daly and in addition our underage Sixes girls & boys team also won a Leinster pennant – outstanding. Congratulations to all those involved, a fantastic achievement.
