Galway pitch & putt team claim silver but miss out on promotion
Team made up entirely of players from Mellows pitch & Putt club in the city
The Galway intercounty pitch & putt team travelled to Navan last weekend to compete in the Eamon Birchall Cup (Class B), where a win would see them promoted to Class A next year, and after an incredible weekend of action, they eventually came up an agonising one-shot short of clinching the title.
The Galway team is made up exclusively of members of Mellows Pitch and Putt club in Renmore, which is located at the Renmore Army Barracks, and has enjoyed an unbelievable season from a national point of view, with a number of individual achievements by its members, culminating in the Leinster Intercounty team event, where the Galway intermediate team finished runner-up, featuring amongst the medals for the first time in many years.
James Mcloughlin, Dave O'Connell, Kevin Walsh, Donal Tarpey, Tony O'Connor, James Fleming, and Nicolas Furey made up the Galway team for last weekend's national cup competition, which was held over two days, with Scotch Foursomes and singles on the first day; with straight foursomes and singles on the second day.
Galway sat joint-first after the first day on 11-under, where they were joined by the teams from Kilkenny, Offaly, and Waterford heading into the afternoon singles, where Furey led off with 7-over, with this score being discarded.
Tarpey followed by posting a score of 5-over; O'Connor came home on 1-over; O'Connell finished on 1-under; and Walsh turned in 1-over; while anchorman Mcloughlin brought home an impressive 6-under to leave Galway sitting in third place overnight, with Kilkenny and Offaly leading the way.
The Galway team were out early on Sunday morning to play straight foursomes, the more difficult format, where two-man teams choose to play alternate tee shots (odds or evens) with the playing partner playing the second shot and so on till the hole is finished.
O'Connor and Tarpey led the way with a solid 1-under; Walsh and O'Connell brought in a score of 2-under; and Mcloughlin was joined by Fleming to score 1-under, with the morning scores enough to move Galway up to second, two shots behind Offaly with it all to play for in the singles.
After six holes in the singles, Galway took the lead with Walsh getting off to a flyer moving to 3-under for this first six holes. Team captain Mcloughlin also showed good early form, moving to 2-under after six holes as Carlow began to climb the leaderboard to sit second.
Carlow eventually set the clubhouse lead with a score of 34-under while Galway's five scores to count out on the course were all under par.
O'Connor's score, although respectable, was discarded, as a brilliant 5-under from Tarpey, bouncing back from 5-over the day before, set the scene, followed by brilliant play from Fleming, Walsh, and O'Connell, who all came home under par.
Another score of 5-under from Mcloughlin brought the Galway total to 33-under, an agonising one shot behind Carlow, who took gold and promotion to Class A next season.
"What a day for Galway Pitch and Putt and Mellows Pitch and Putt club," said club chairperson, Frank Naughton.
"This year has been unbelievable, another tranche of medals across the Shannon, we'll need a new cabinet if this keeps up! So proud of our lads, well done and we'll celebrate later this year," he said.
Mellows still have the National Shield and the interclub championship to come in October with their eyes firmly fixed on the end of an astonishing season.