Mullarney shines as Galway claim the Barton Shield

Date Published: 18-Jun-2012

Declan Tierney

There is no doubt that Galway Golf Club are going to be a forced to be reckoned with on the fairways this year as they captured the first provincial title of the season with victory in the Barton Shield at the weekend.

For the first time, the competition for some of the best amateur golfers was contested and concluded in the one weekend and it proved a very successful way of completing the event.

But it was agonising for the defending Connacht champions, Athenry, who were comprehensively defeated in the final by Galway who provided the launching pad for 16-years-old Ronan Mullarney to display his incredible talent.

Galway last won the provincial title in 2010, but on this occasion there was no denying them as they were the leading qualifiers on Saturday in incredibly tough conditions at the Enniscrone links where high winds made scoring very difficult.

The competition, which is decided on the aggregate score of two pairings, involved 15 clubs from the province, with four qualifying for the semi-finals.

It was strokeplay qualifying and it is a reflection of the difficult playing conditions on Saturday that the Galway pairings were a total of 13 over par . . . and, yet, were the leading qualifiers. They were joined in the semi-finals by Ballinrobe, Athenry and County Sligo.

On Sunday morning the playing conditions were more benign compared to the previous day, and it was evidence that sub-par golf was necessary for teams to progress to the final.

Galway were pitted against arch rivals County Sligo in the first semi-final and it was former West of Ireland champion Joe Lyons and young Ronan Mullarney to turned on the class with a great start and this paved the way to them closing out the match, being six up through 17 holes.

In the match behind them, Irish international Eddie McCormack and Damien Glynn were two down at one stage and got it back to all square with their match finishing on the 15th with Galway an aggregate of 6 up with no possibility of a Sligo recovery.

Meanwhile, Athenry overcame Ballinrobe in the second semi-final with Sean Cannon and Brian O’Reilly winning their match by two holes while David Byrne and Martin Hynes were all square when they were called in at the 17th hole.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.