Bravehearts of The Curragh win dramatic victory at the 22nd hol
Daily Mail
03 May 2009
CURRAGH’S Anne Delaney and Violet Macdonald produced a Braveheart performance to reach the third round of the Irish Mail All-Ireland Fourball Trophy.
They beat Killeen’s Noirin Fitzgerald and Mary Rose Kiely at the fourth hole of sudden death in the gathering gloom in one of the longest matches to take place this year.
The battle scenes for the Oscar winning Mel Gibson film Braveheart were shot on location at the Curragh and the spirit of never-say-die lived on in one of the most dramatic finishes seen in the competition.
Anne Delaney said: ‘The Curragh golf course is punctuated with old dug out trenches, a lingering reminder of the dress rehearsals which took place there for the ensuing carnage of the trenches on the Somme and so on.
‘We spent six and a half hours on the course. I don't know whether it was the spirit of those brave World War 1 soldiers or the lingering aura of Braveheart that kept us going, but we decided that we would continue battling even if we had to turn on the car lights.’
Eventually, a short putt on the 22nd hole - the par three, 4th hole – clinched the victory, and left the Curragh pair ‘banjaxed’, according to Anne.
Both players are long standing members of the Curragh, the oldest golf course in Ireland, have served on committee and Anne Delaney was lady captain in 2007
In a double dose of drama, Belfast club Malone’s Jane Gardner and Anne Chambers also had a 22nd hole sudden death victory over Hilton Templepatrick.
Jane Gardner said: ‘We halved the first three tie holes and on the fourth hole we won with a par. I think we were all exhausted by that stage. It was a par three and everyone was on the green, but Hilton had tricky downhill putts and we didn’t.’ |
| |