Galway GC stay on course to retain Irish Senior Cup

GALWAY took a giant leap towards retaining the biggest prize in club golf when they won the Connacht Senior Cup title following their defeat of County Sligo in the final.

While the reigning All-Ireland champions had it relatively their own way in the Connacht final, it was a much tighter affair in the semi-final against neighbours and close rivals Galway Bay.

Indeed, what added to the intrigue of this semi-final contest was the fact that a number of the Galway Bay team had previously represented the Salthill club in the past.

Galway had notched up wins through Liam Nolan who defeated former Salthill player Damien Glynn having built up a commanding early lead, while veteran and former West of Ireland champion Joe Lyons is currently playing solid golf as he recorded a 4&3 victory over Michael Shiel.

However, there were losses for Luke O’Neill to Ross Kelly on the 17th while Mikey Burke suffered a heavy defeat to former Galway player and Irish international, and recently crowned Connacht strokeplay champion Eddie McCormack.

So it was down to North of Ireland Amateur Open champion Ronan Mullarney to pull the result out of the fire for Galway against Niall Carroll and had to win three holes in a row to get his match back to all-square in the back nine before securing a birdie on the 17th which proved crucial as he won 1 up.

It was then on to the final against County Sligo – themselves Senior Cup specialists – but it was one-way traffic as Galway secured the first three matches with Luke O’Neill defeating former Irish international Sean Flanagan on the 18th.

Liam Nolan won on the 17th (3&1) but it was certainly a case of hats off to Ronan Mullarney who seven under par after his first seven holes (five birdies and an eagle).

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