Woodbrook round one success

Woodbrook's Linda Cole-McKenna and Sarah Cleary

Daily Mail
06 Apr 2009

WOODBROOK recorded one of the biggest wins in the first round of the Irish Mail All-Ireland Trophy and are now focusing on some unfinished business.

The Irish Mail Trophy is the successor to The Mail on Sunday Classic, in which the Co.Wicklow club lost in the finals to eventual champions Hockley in 2002 at Myrtle Beach.

Linda Cole-McKenna, who with partner Sarah Cleary had a 6&4 victory over Kay Faulkner and Eva Reynolds of Foxrock, said: ‘I was captain of that Woodbrook team in Myrtle Beach and I played in the side which lost in the seventh round in 2007, so we have some history there. Maybe it is time for our luck to change.’

Cole-McKenna and Cleary were picked by Woodbrook after they won the gross prize in an open fourball competition at Baltray

Sarah Cleary, who is corporate manager of a Dublin law firm, only took up golf when she married and moved to Ireland in the early 1990s, but now plays off six handicap, as does her partner.

‘I was born in Cheshire and my father was an industrial chemist with ICI so I have lived in many countries, including Kenya for 12 years. But I love my golf in Ireland.

‘Linda and I are good friends and we do enjoy fourball. We also won the Dun Laoghaire Fourball competition in 2005, so we are hoping that we can have a good run through the rest of the year. It would be great if we could make it to the finals but we are just trying to take one match at a time at the moment.’

*City of Derry, two-times winners of The Mail on Sunday Classic, also reached the second round with a victory on the 18th green against Foyle. Their players Brenda Chauhan and Betty McBride were reserves when Derry last won in 2004. Chauhan said: ‘It was a very tense match against Foyle, under difficult conditions. We’re already looking forward to our next match.’