McGinn wins Last 18 in Mellows
The now traditional ‘August Bank Holiday Weekend tour down south’ took place as usual last weekend. In the history of this tour, which was begun by Larry McGinn in the late 80′s, there has never been as many travel on it. In total we had 18 travel in our group. From Collinstown we had Larry McGinn, John McDonald, Liam Hetherton, Martin Carter and his wife Ita, Paddy and John Browne, Liz Quinn, Peter Dolan, Darren Reilly, Stephen Bray, Niall Cuffe and Alan Hanlon. We also had Paul Bray from Kilbeggan (a former Collinstown member) and Frankie Feeley from Stackallen. Then we had as usual, our 3 friends from England – Steve, John and Jamie Deeble who are registered with the McDonagh club in Kildare.
The weekend began as normal with an early start in the Saturday morning with all cars departing from Mullingar before 6am. Breakfast was had on the way and everyone was on the first tee-box in Fermoy before 9am. After 36 holes in Fermoy, John Browne was showing early form recording a 47, 46, but not good enough to force himself into the prizes unfortunately. The convoy then moved onto Kilmichael for the scratch cup where there was a lot more success. Six of the travelling group made the play-off with John Deeble the best of them in second place overall with a 97. Frankie Feely 103, John Browne 104, Steve Deeble 104, Larry McGinn 104 and Darren Reilly 104 were the other 5 to make the final round. A superb 46 from the legend Ray Murphy wrapped up the final 18 prize so all hopes of our group getting a prize lay at the feet of John Deeble. He did not disappoint! He was 3 shots behind former National Champion Bryan Delaney going into the final round but within 10 holes he had turned this into a 2 shot lead. Delaney though is a seasoned campaigner and had himself retaken the lead by a shot going to the 17th. A good birdie from John though tied it up again and 2 par’s on 18 meant that we needed a 4 hole play-off to separate the 2 men. Both men pared the first play-off hole but Delaney made birdie on the second. More pars on the 3rd meant the John was 1 behind playing the last. Delaney pitched to 15 inches and it looked all over. John was never going to give it up till the end though and sank a birdie from off the green. Delaney made no mistake though with his short putt to win by one. A superb performance by John Deeble though, – this is the second time that this English man has finished second in an Irish scratch cup – an achievement to be very proud off. John’s father, Steve Deeble also picked up the runners-up prize in the Intermediate grade.
A late night socialising on Saturday night meant that the standard of play dropped slightly on Sunday morning as we returned to Fermoy again. Peter Dolan with a 47, 48 was the best of the bunch that morning. And so the group travelled onto Bruff scratch cup. Unfortunately none of the travelling party managed to make the cut in Bruff but special mention must go to Liz Quinn for a brilliant performance shooting 10 under par gross including a fine hole-in-one (one of NINE holes-in-one in the group for the weekend).
Monday morning came and a quick 36 holes was played in Parteen before travelling to Galway. The scoring in Parteen was off the highest standard with Niall Cuffe the pick of the bunch shooting 16 under for 36. Other notables were Larry McGinn on 14 and John Browne and Paul Bray on 12 under. Then the convoy moved onto Mellows scratch cup. Again we had good success there as 4 of our group made the play-off, namely Niall Cuffe on 99, Paul Bray on 100, Larry McGinn on 101 and John Browne also on 101. No one came near the eventual winner Bryan Delaney (again) who finished on 23 under for the 54 holes which included an incredible 42 second round. There was the battle for the last 18 though and of course, Mellows specialist Larry McGinn claimed the prize with a 49 beating Niall Cuffe on the break of a tie. It was past midnight when the last of the group arrived back in Mullingar but it was all well worth it and already the plans are being made for next year.