29th May 2009: Offaly players set sights on National Matchplay Finals this weekend

Preview » Times of Play » Round 1 Results » Round 2 -Quarter Final Results » Semi-Final and Final Results »

For up to date scoring for gents matches on the PPUI website click here »
For up to date scoring for ladies matches on the PPUI website click here »

Preview
Offaly will have 8 representatives in total battling it out for the coveted honours on offer over this June Bank Holiday weekend at Castletown, Co. Meath. There are 6 gents from Offaly in the National Gents Finals and 2 ladies from Offaly in their respective National Ladies Finals. Jimmy Scanlon (Erry) will be first to take to the tee and hit the first/second ball of the championship as he faces the defending champion from Cork, Ray Murphy. A stiff first round draw but it will not phase Jimmy one bit as he will hope to put up a credible challenge as the first person to dethrone the champion who is bidding for his fifth Matchplay title. Second Offaly man off the blocks will be Kieran Egan of Ferbane who qualified out of the group of death in the Offaly qualifiers, he faces Barry Hill from Cement. Third out in the morning session of the gents is Tullamore's Mark Hogan who will face another Cork man, an experienced and formidable pitch and putt player, Chris Scannell. Mark will be hoping to hit form as he tries to make the second round of the championships on Sunday. Last of the Offaly men to play in the morning session is none other than young gun Graham Newman (Erry). Graham has become a certain prospect for future championships from county to national level. This will be his first taste of National competition in the adult ranks so it will remain to be seen whether he can adapt quickly to the high standards of competition on show this weekend. Graham faces Westmeath man Stephen Bray of Collinstown. The second session tees off at 3p.m. with Larry Maher Jnr. (Erry) taking on yet another Cork man, previous National champion and Irish International, John Walsh, in the first round. A daunting task lies ahead of Larry as he will have to be in top form to challenge the Irish number three ranked gents player in Ireland. But this is a matchplay event and it all comes down to who plays well on the day and copes with the pressure of the Finals best, anything can happen!! Our last representative in the Gents Finals is Tullamore's Anthony Galvin. Anthony, an avid Leinster rugby supporter, faces Munster man JP Fletton in the first round, hopefully Leinster will come to the fore in this match once again in impressive fashion! In the Ladies section Offaly have 2 strong competitors travelling to the royal county. Deirdre Byrne of Tullamore, formally of Dublin, will face Cork's Siobhan Scannell in the first round, while Tracey McGrath of Erry, number 3 seed for the championship, faces Dublin's Barbara Furlong in the first round.

We wish all our Offaly competitors the very best of luck this sunny championship weekend!!

Times of Play
The Gents First Round Matches 1-16 take place Saturday morning from 10a.m.
The Ladies First Round Matches 1-16 take place Saturday from 12.30p.m.
The Gents Second Round Matches 17-32 take place Saturday from 3p.m.

Gents Second Round starts Sunday from 9.30a.m.
Ladies Second Round starts Sunday from 12p.m.
Gents Third Round starts Sunday from 2p.m.
Ladies Quarter Finals starts Sunday from 4.30p.m.
Gents Quarter Finals starts Sunday from 4.50p.m.

Gents Semi Finals Monday @ 9a.m.
Ladies Semi Finals Monday @ 9.30a.m.
Gents Final Monday @ 1p.m.
Ladies Final Monday @ 1.45p.m.


Round 1 Results
Day 1 of the National Matchplay Finals saw terrific play and many major shocks and the most impressive one was indeed served up by our own Larry Maher who knocked out the seeded John Walsh. Larry won on the second tie hole.
Other impressive victories were secured by Graham Newman who beat Stephen Bray 5/4 and Anthony Galvin beat J P Fletton 5/4. Our other 3 representatives fell at the first hurdle as they encountered a number of tough opponents; Jimmy Scanlon was beaten by defending champion Ray Murphy 10/9, Kieran Egan lost to Barry Hill 5/4 as did Mark Hogan who was beaten by Chris Scannell 5/4. In the Ladies section Deirdre Byrne faced tough opposition and was beaten 6/5 by Siobhan Scannell while Tracey McGrath secured an impressive 10/8 victory over Barbara Furlong.

Tomorrow brings a long day for all as 3 rounds of matches must be played in the gents and 2 round of matches in the ladies.
The second round sees Graham Newman take on Lakeside's Davy Morrissey at 9.54a.m., Larry Maher Jnr. tees off at 10.02a.m. taking on Seapoint's Brian McGinn and Anthony Galvin takes on Kenneth Kerin of Clare Road at 10.18a.m. while Tracey McGrath takes on Carol O'Brien of Gael Colmcille at 12.16p.m. Best of luck to them all!!

Round 2 - Quarter Finals Results
Following his impressive win yesterday over seeded player John Walsh Larry Maher could not find the form he needed to over come the man from Seapoint, Brian McGinn, Larry was beaten 3/2. Anthony Galvin got off to a great start in his match against Kenneth Kerin of Clare but he was unable to answer Kerin's fight back beating Anthony 2/1. Graham Newman continued his great performance of Saturday when he impressively beat Davy Morrissey of Lakeside 4/3. Graham went to play in a third round match against another Lakeside man Paul O'Brien, one of the seeded gents in this national. Expereince however came to the fore in this game with O'Brien beating Graham 3/2. In the ladies championship Tracey McGrath continues to fly the Offaly flag as she overcame a second round match against Carol O'Brien 11/10 and saw off the challenge of rival Chrissie Byrne 3/2. She now faces Geraldine Ward in the Semi-Finals Sunday morning.

For up to date scoring for gents matches on the PPUI website click here »
For up to date scoring for ladies matches on the PPUI website click here »

Tracey Triumphs at Castletown

The long awaited final day of the Matchplay championships arrived in the warmest conditions of the Bank Holiday weekend and a lone Offaly player travelled to Castletown to face a semi-final encounter with a multi national winner. Erry's Tracey McGrath faced Geraldine Ward of Portmarnock. A battled ensued as Tracey bid to make her first national matchplay final after several near past attempts in recent years while Geraldine was on a mission to equal the record of 14 National titles. The stage was set and following the first semi-final of Sheelagh Elmes (Portmarnock) and Siobhan Scannell (Collins) Tracey and Ger took their positions on the first tee box. Ger made no mistake in making a dream start and found herself ahead by several holes by the 9th. It looked like an uphill battle for Tracey at that stage as Ger was on top form making no mistakes. Tracey found herself 4down at the 17th. The 18th was to see the start of an unforgettable comeback for the faithful player, it was the beginning of her birdie blitz. For the next 14 holes Tracey was to birdie an amazing 11 holes to bring her right back into the match and take a 2hole advantage by the 12th (30th) hole with 6 holes to play, her run included a 3rd nine blistering scoring of 19 (8 under). Both birdied the tricky 13th hole, Ger won the 14th and halved the 15th, Tracey then retained her 2 hole advantage on the 16th. The match was dormie with 2 to play and Tracey gladly closed out the remarkable game on the 17th to secure her place in the first ever national matchplay final. Her opponent was to Siobhan Scannell from Cork who won a very tight semi-final on the final 36th hole over Sheelagh Elmes.

(following is partly extracted from the PPUI website) - An entertaining final beckoned as Siobhan Scannell and Tracy McGrath shook hands on the first tee and if the standard of play proved to be even close to that of the morning the attendance would not be disappointed. The match was all square after two holes with the players exchanging wins. After the eighth Tracy was 2 up but Siobhan won the 9th to bring the deficit back to only one hole and after 11 holes Tracy remained 1 up. By the 13th that lead had been extended again to two holes and remained the same until the 18th which was halved with 2’s with Tracey holing a twelve foot putt and followed in by a six foot putt from Siobhan. The deficit was reduced to a single hole at the 20th but Tracy came back immediately with a win on the 21st only to lose this advantage on the 22nd. Tracy restored her lead to 2 holes after 24 and quickly added the next two to bring her to 4 up, a lead which she held after 27 and by the 31st had increased to 5 up and ran out a comfortable winner by 5/4 holding a 6 foot putt for par on the 14th hole to capture her first Senior Ladies National Matchplay Title. In her acceptance speech Tracey paid tribute to all her opponents over the weekend and congratulated everyone who took part and involved in presenting the course in such excellant condition and remarked that it was indeed one of her favourite courses from that memorable weekend that brought her her first National Senior title!! Tracey also thanked those who provided words of encouragement and supported her over the weekend and in the past year and specially dedicated her victory to her family.
In the Gents section Ray Murphy of Cork secured a historic victory over Jonathan Goodall of Kerry, Ray won his fourth consecutive National Matchplay title, congratulations Ray on such a remarkable feat! Cork five in a row on the cards in 2010??

Tracey's win at Castletown now sees her take over the number 1 ranked Irish Lady spot for the first time...
Ladies National Matchplay 2009 Final Results »
Gents National Matchplay 2009 Final Results »

National Matchplay Champions 2009
Ray Murphy & Tracey McGrath