Tied in Malahide!

 

Tied in Malahide

CAIGS 9 - ICAS 9, 25-26 April 2024 at The Island GC and County Louth GC

Looking out from the breakfast room of the Grand Hotel in Malahide, the golf course at The Island Golf Club, in north county Dublin is so close it appears you can jump the puddle of water in front to reach the links in a single step. The car journey to the first tee however is a good twenty minutes around the bay over several winding country roads and through towering windswept dunes. It is possibly because The Island is so relatively inaccessible that, despite its proximity to Dublin city, it remains one of Ireland’s most closely guarded secrets.

In combination with the first day of the match at County Louth golf club, Baltray, the travelling Chartered Accountants from Ireland and Scotland enjoyed two glorious days of golf and weather in late April for their annual match on two superb golf courses. This year the Irish team was as close to winning back the McCormack Manson Trophy as that short distance across Malahide harbour but alas, our quest, like several crucial putts, came up just short in the dunes and the match was halved, allowing the Scots to retain the trophy and take it back across the Irish Sea to bonny Scotland. 

Making this international team is tough and will be even tougher for those wishing to travel for the return match in 2025 at Royal Aberdeen and Cruden Bay in the north of Scotland, unless their playing record in 2024 or performances at Rosses Point in the annual outing, demonstrates an ability to cope with strong links courses. 

This year winning debutants Patrick McKenna and Eimear McCarthy have good reasons to be hopeful for re-selection, whilst some will have good reason to look over their shoulders at younger, fitter players currently vying for promotion from the bench.  Both the first day fourballs and the second day singles were halved 3-3 and 6-6 respectively, with strong contributions from Louise Coffey and David Cunningham, both with 2 full points, whilst our septuagenarian superstar Shane O’Mahony achieved 1 ½ points out of two. 

If you wish to represent CAIGS in this fixture next year, you have to do two things. Firstly, nobble those who are currently on the team and, once you have managed that, and only if you have significant inducements to offer, contact Peter Greene the current Team Captain 😜