Rossmore Golf Club in Monaghan became the third club to book a place at the national final of the Musgrave's Golf Challenge in aid of Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin to be held in Cape Town, South Africa, when they won the Ulster final at Castle Hume last week.
They join Leinster champions, Seafield and Carrick-on-Shannon, who won the Connacht title on the plane for South Africa and a week-long stay at the Erinvale resort in Somerset West, a suburb of Cape Town.
Fifteen teams teed it up in the Ulster final at Castle Hume with Rossmore, prevailing rather comfortably in the end with 81 points, three clear of the host club, who in turned edged out Donegal's Gweedore on countback.
The Rossmore team of five handicapper John O'Gorman, Nigel Graham (14) and Australian born John Toohey (16) in conditions testing. Graham and Toohey who qualified and played in last year's Ulster final, tried to make the grade again in Rossmore club qualifier, albeit with the help of O'Gorman this time, who stepped in at the last moment.
The latter explained: "I just happened to be at the club that day and I'm very grateful to the boys for asking me to join them. Conditions were difficult on the day (of the Ulster final) so it was hard to gauge what score would be required. At no stage during the round did we think we were going to win it.
"In fact when we came in we thought we'd 80 points and only then found out that it was 81. We'd heard that another club had 85 points but that turned out to be clubhouse rumour. You do set out with a few goals in a format like this; 16/17/18 for the first six, about 30 for the second six and then you hope to take your chances when the pressure comes on with everyone to score over the last six holes.
"John Toohey putted very well early on and kept us going. We did very poorly on the 16th, the index 18, which we all bogeyed so managed just the three points. We couldn't believe it when we found out that we'd won. It's the win of a lifetime and we're just looking forward to heading for South Africa."
The fourth and final provincial winners are Nenagh Golf Club who produced a magnificent 84 points, the highest total of any of the four final qualifiers at a blustery Bantry Bay Golf club yesterday.
Their achievement is all the more poignant in that they might not have competed yesterday at all. The team of Paddy Kennedy, Gary Howard and Winnie Ryan actually finished second in the qualifier in their own club Nenagh but the winners that day were doubly engaged on yesterday's date so Kennedy, Howard and Ryan were drafted in. Charleville pipped the home club's all lady line-up with a better score of 51 points to 47 on the back nine after both sides finished level on 77 points.
The four provincial winners head to South Africa (November 15th-23rd) for the All-Ireland Final and will play four competitive rounds over the South African Open venues, Erinvale GC (twice), Stellenbosch and Mowbray,
ULSTER FINAL (at Castle Hume): 1 Rossmore (J O'Gorman (5), N Graham (14), J Toohey (16) 81 pts; 2 Castle Hume (C Moore (16), G Thompson (20), A Connor (25) 78pts; 3 Gweedore (A Doherty (5), F McGinley (10), S O'Duibhir (13) 78 pts.
MUNSTER FINAL (at Bantry Bay): 1 Nenagh (P Kennedy (8), G Howard (14), W Ryan (18) 84 pts; 2 Charleville (P Madden (15), D Rochford (10), D Whelan (12) 77pts; 3 Bantry Bay (E O'Sullivan (17), M Mulhall (17), S O'Keeffe (27) 77pts.
