If you were looking for an afternoon of riveting play, scintillating scoring and generosity of spirit it would be hard to beat the Ladies Senior final played at an immaculate ESB course in Cork. The opponents were both Tipperary players with the youthful Martha O’Brien Lakeside taking on the vastly experienced Breda Lonergan of Tipperary Hills. From the start Martha went into the lead by winning the 1st, by the 4th Breda had reversed the situation and gone one up herself. By the 6th Martha had gone 1 up again, this lead was increased to 2 up by the 12th  only to be pulled back by the most delicate putt from Breda on the thirteenth. At the 18th Martha took the lead to 2 up and then to 3 up by the 21st , by the 25th the match was back to level and it was clear that a titanic battle was underway. Matha went 1 up again on the 26th but was drawn back on the 28th , from then on the match was level with Martha holing long putts on the 32nd, 33rd and 34th holes to keep at level. At the 36th both players pitched to five feet and when Martha missed her uphill putt Breda calmly holed a fast breaking effort for victory. Having witnessed such a display one wonders why more ladies do not play competitively. Well done to both players for super entertainment.


The Ladies Junior final featured Breda O Donnell from Cunnigar and Marie Kerr from Rosscarbery. The first 18 holes saw the lead firmly with Marie initially as she went 1 up on the 4th, the match was brought back to level on the 7th before Marie went 1up on the 10th a lead she extended to 2up briefly on the 12th before going back to level after 18. In the second 18 Breda came to the fore and went 1 up after 19, by the 25th she had gone to 1 down but a stretch of eight threes in a row saw her convert this deficit to a lead of four holes as she ran out a winner by a 4&3 margin. Once again this was a vastly entertaining contest and played in a sporting and friendly manner. Breda speaking afterwards said that she found the experience rewarding in the extreme and lamented the lack of ladies interested in playing Matchplay competition.

Two finals, two winners named Breda and being honest  Pitch & Putt was also a huge winner this weekend in Cork