McDonald & Ruane finish runner-up in County Matchplay
From left to right: Anthony Browne (Custume Chairman), Davy Corcoran (Co. Board Comp. Sec.), John McDonald (Senior Runner-up), Domenic Prendergast (Junior Runner-up), Dean Dinnegan (Junior Winner), Martin Kenny (Senior Winner), Pat Stevens (Inter Winner), Stephen Ruane (Inter Runner-up), James Corcoran (Co. Board Chairman)
Last weekend saw one of the highlights of the Pitch & Putt calendar in Westmeath – namely the Westmeath Matchplay Championships. Custume was the hosts for this year’s event and what an excellent job they did. The course was presented in excellent championship condition and the welcome the club gave to the competitors all weekend was to be commended.
The championships kicked off on Friday evening with the Junior preliminary rounds. This was followed on Saturday morning by all grades getting to play their first round matches. Unfortunately the Junior grade brought no joy for the Collinstown competitors as we didn’t have anyone make it through to Sunday morning’s semi-finals.
John McDonald receiving his runners-up prize from County Board Chairman james Corcoran.
We did however have much better fortunes in the Senior and Inter grades. In the Senior grade John McDonald rolled back the years to put in a display of Pitch & Putt that resembled the standard he played at when he won this championship approximately 10 years ago. John started with a tough assignment against a past winner, Kilbeggan’s Ronan Whelan. John was quickly out of the blocks in this one though, building a lead of 5 holes after the opening 9. McDonald was always considered an experienced match-player and he never opened the door for Whelan to get back into the match. He eventually closed out the match quite comfortably.
His quarter-final match with local man Jimmy Revins was a real ding-dong battle. Jimmy is arguably having his best ever season in Senior Pitch & Putt this year and was never going to be easy to beat in this champinoship. While John was never behind in this encounter, he couldn’t shake off the attentions of Revins and in the end the match went down the final hole. McDonald was one up at this stage however and when Jimmy failed to make birdie, he sportingly shook hands with the Cavan man.
This took ‘Dossie’ as he affectionately known, through to Sunday mornings semi-finals, where he met his club-mate, John Browne. John is at the top of his game at the moment, recently coming off the the back of his fine win at the Galway Masters. John was also champion of this event in 2012 and in many peoples eyes, the favourite to win this semi-final. McDonald was having none of it though and played superb Pitch & Putt throughout the match, including holing out seven times from off the green. Eventually McDonald triumphed by a 4&3 margin.
This left one more obstacle between him and a second Westmeath Matchplay title – local hero Martin Kenny. Before the championship started, most agreed that it was hard to look past Martin Kenny, or Pat Malone for a winner and so it proved to be. Martin reeled off 4 birdies in a row at the end of the first round to turn 4 up. That was the gap he needed as he just kicked for home in the second round, eventually running out a 9&8 winner. A fine weekend’s performance though from our own John McDonald and a runners-up prize at this level is still something to cherish.
Stephen Ruane receives the Intermediate runner-up prize from James Corcoran
In the Intermediate section our own Stephen Ruane was defending the title he won last year in Collinstown. Stephen is playing superb Pitch & Putt at the moment and was definitely amongst the favourites for the title again before a ball was hit. Stephen’s first match was against club-mate Mark Ayres. Stephen got into the groove early and never really allowed Mark to get a foothold in this match. The champ was off and running.
His next match was against the steely determined Lee Stynes from Lough Owel. Lee, although carrying an injury still managed to put out local man Davy Reddin in the opening round, and was in no mood to go down without a fight. This was high-quality tough battle of a match but in the end Stephen managed to come out on top.
This took the Collinstown man through to Sunday morning’s semi-final and his opponent was the bright young prospect from Rochfortbridge, Martin White. Again this was a close battle but Martin made a couple of very costly errors at crucial stages and they cost him dearly in the end.
Stephen had once again reached the final. His opponent though was local man Pat ‘the papa’ Stevens. Papa has been a seasoned campaigner for manys’ a year now and knows his way around Custume better than most. This experience was to benefit him in the end and he never allowed Stephen to get ahead in the final. Despite all that Stephen threw at him, he never panicked and eventually closed out the match 3&2. Stephen can be proud of the fine defence of his title that he put up.
Once again a big thanks to Custume club for their excellent hosting of the event. Also thanks to the County Board for a very professionally run championship. Westmeath Pitch & Putt is in very good hands at the moment.