IRELAND TRIUMPH IN FOUR NATIONS GOLF CHALLENGE AT THE OXFORDSHIRE 

What a year for Irish golf 2011 is turning out to be! Following the triumphs of Rory Mcllroy and Darren Clarke in the US Open and Open Championship respectively, club golfers representing Team Ireland, followed their success with victory in the 2011 Grand Final of the Four Nations Golf Challenge (one of UK’s leading amateur golf competition) at The Oxfordshire Hotel & Golf Resort.   

Plenty of excitement and drama unfolded at The Oxfordshire’s award winning Rees Jones-designed American parkland style Golf Course on 26th and 27th September, as the teams of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales battled to become ‘Champion Nation of the Year’. In glorious weather, the four national teams of twelve club golfers playing in pairs in a better ball match play format, played out two dramatic semi-finals on Day 1, with both matches finishing level at 3 points each. This necessitated the pre-selected ‘names in the envelope’ to be utilised with one pair per country playing out sudden-death!

The first play-off needed three attempts on the difficult 415 yard, par 4, eighteenth hole before the Welsh pairing of Barry James of Drayton Park and Trevor Harrhy of Frilford Heath edged out Sean Lapper and Stephen King of Cherwell Edge, representing England. 

That was followed by Ireland’s Baden and Michael Maher of Killarney taking two attempts to beat the Scottish pair of George Thomson and Graeme McCann of The Glen GC, to join Wales in the next day final. 

Day 2 saw the good weather and high quality golf maintained as the Grand Final between Ireland and Wales got underway. Although the duo of David Bailey and Kashif Shabir of St. Pierre got Wales into an early lead in Match 1, Ireland came storming back, taking leads in the next three matches. When the respective play-off heroes from Day 1 finished their head-to-head on the 17th, there was only one point in it with Ireland having the slender 3-2 advantage! It was all on the last match but the Irish Captain, Ian Dallas of Collingtree Park and his partner Fraser Thomson of Huddersfield GC proved too strong for the Welsh pair of Chris Gunn and Duncan Thomas of Maidenhead, closing out their match 4 and 3 to claim the trophy for IRELAND!  

Ian Dallas, Captain of the victorious Team Ireland, said; “On behalf of all the competitors, I wish to thank the Four Nations Golf Challenge for such a fantastic event. We didn’t want for anything and we all felt like Ryder Cup players! I cannot believe that as club golfers, we have all received an ‘International Cap’ and to have captained my nation to victory will be a memory forever.”

TEAM IRELAND

Brian McClements & William McClements - Bright Castle and Spa Golf Club

Robert Aiken from Royal Portrush & Jonathan Doherty - Portstewart

Baden Maher & Michael Maher - Killarney Golf Club

Paul S. Byrne & Paul Byrne -Skerries G.C.

Jeremy Cleary & Sarah Cleary - Woodbrook

Fraser Thomson from Huddersfield & Ian Dallas - Collingtree Park  

All the excitement was captured for Sky Sports and can be seen at the following times:

1. 18th October - 17:00 on Sky Sports 4

2. 18th October - 20:00 on Sky Sports 3 (PRIME TIME)

3. 19th October - 01:30 on Sky Sports 3

4. 19th October - 11:30 on Sky Sports 2   

Ireland 4

Wales 2

Detailed scores can be viewed at: www.egolfscore.com.  

For full details of The Four Nations Golf Challenge go to: www.fournationsgolfchallenge.co.uk.