Rockmount ladies compete in the All Ireland finals at Mullingar GC

Norma Devenny’s team were drawn against Leinster champions Newlands Golf Club in the semi-final. The team were led out by Noreen O’Hare, followed by the Lady Captain Noeleen Houston, Moya Sloan, Karen Sloan and Diane Andrews started brightly and the score slightly favoured Rockmount as the teams completed the front nine, with Rockmount up in three and down in two. Soon after; Karen Sloan closed out her match 6 and 5 to put the first point on the board for Rockmount. Noreen O’Hare was always behind in her match and after the eleventh hole found herself 6 down with seven to play, but in true never say die style she won the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth to reduce the deficit to 3. The fifteenth was shared and Noreen’s gallant fight back finished on the sixteenth. Lady Captain Noeleen Houston had a real topsy-turvy battle with the lead changing many times until Noeleen eventually lost 2 and 1. Diane Andrews stamped her authority on her match after the eleventh and won her match 5 and 3. With the scores level at two matches each all depended on the match involving Moya Sloan. Moya was two down after nine and really up against it when she went three down with three to play, admirably she won sixteen, Moya won seventeen to reduce the deficit to one. The eighteenth beckoned, Moya had to win the hole to take the match down the nineteenth, shots were traded down the long par five. Moya was first to play her approach shot to the eighteenth green, despite a very good effort her shot came up short and went into the water thereby opening the door for her Newland’s opponent which she gratefully accepted and won the hole to close out the match in Newlands favour. The Monteverde Cup competition was played on Saturday 28th September. First place with 44 points went to Mark Andrews (19), second place was decided on count back with Jim Brittain (17) beating Stephen Dunlop on count back. The low section (0 -11) was won by Harry Greer (07) with 42 points, the mid-section (12 – 17) was won by Stephen Dunlop (14) with 43 points and the high section (18 – 28) was won by John Campbell (24) who had 42 points. Best gross on the day was from Colin McClenaghan (02) who for the second week in a row had a three under par gross score of 69. Colin’s round was a model of consistency with fifteen pars and three birdies at the tenth, fifteenth and sixteenth holes. On Sunday afternoon the 29th August the Junior Cowdy team welcomed Kilkeel Golf Club to Rockmount for the second leg of the Junior Cowdy final. At the first leg at Kilkeel the score was 21/2 to 11/2 in favour of Rockmount. Team Captain Tom Sloan was forced to mix his team up from the first leg due to unavailability. Out first were Fergus McCartney and Bob McClean, from the off Fergus and Bob knew they were in a battle with the Kilkeel pair making three birdies early on, Bob and Fergus inevitably lost 6 and 5. After nine holes the other matches all favoured Rockmount but the experience in the Kilkeel team, having won this competition four times previously (including in 2008 and 2009) started to tell, Sean Lawell and Kevin Cushnan were two up at one stage before losing 2 and 1. Jim Madden and David Bailey were in the closest match of all and shared the eighteenth hole to halve their match, by which time Kilkeel had an attained unassailable lead due to holes. The last match John McGrath and Paul Clydesdale were thereby called in. Allan Patterson from the Cowdy Association was on hand with the Junior Cowdy cup to present the cup to the worthy winners Kilkeel Golf Club.