Victory puts Mannan Castle on verge of a famous golfing double
Daily Mail
01 Sep 2009
MANNAN CASTLE are on the verge of a unique double after reaching the inaugural final of the Irish Mail All-Ireland Fourball Trophy.
Mannan’s John Clarke and John Lane beat Portarlington’s Finian Daly and Ciaran Hutchinson 5&4 to go through to next month’s finals at the Paul McGinley-designed Macreddin Village course.
If they win at Macreddin, it will mean the Carrickmacross club have added the Irish Mail Trophy to The Mail on Sunday Classic, which they won at El Rompido in southern Spain last year.
Remarkably they have reached the finals without calling on any of last year’s victorious players. Clarke and Lane won the Mannan Castle matchplay pairs championship and the club decided they should be the ones to play in the Irish Mail Trophy, which is the successor competition to the Classic. Clarke played in two qualifying matches last year in the Classic and travelled to El Rompido for the finals as a reserve, but did not play.
Club captain Patrick Brady said: ‘We are absolutely delighted that Mannan Castle has reached the finals of the Irish Mail trophy. It would be an amazing double if we could win this event, as well as being last year’s champions in The Mail on Sunday Classic.
‘We have over 200 golfers who want to play every weekend and of course they all wanted to play in this new competition. The boys did great to win in Spain, but we felt it was right that the two Johns should represent the club after their club matchplay win. They have certainly done as well as we could have hoped.’
In last November’s final of The Mail on Sunday Classic, Shane Corr, Seamus Finnegan, Mark Lambe, Barry McCourt and Thomas Pepper beat English club Nevill, whose team included English Amateur Champion Todd Adcock.
Also through to the men’s final at Macreddin Village are County Antrim club Greenisland, who beat Rockmount 2&1, and Tipperary, who beat Adare 2&1. They will be joined by the winners of the quarter-final match between Edenmore and Bundoran. |
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