IRELAND TRIUMPH IN 2011 FOUR NATIONS GOLF CHALLENGE!

What a year for Irish golf 2011 turned out to be! Following the triumphs of Rory Mcllroy and Darren Clarke in the US Open and Open Championship respectively, club golfers representing Team Ireland, followed their success with victory in the 2011 Grand Final of the FOUR NATIONS GOLF CHALLENGE – sponsored by GOLF PLUS DIRECT – ‘Golf Fees Made Easy’

Plenty of excitement and drama unfolded at The Oxfordshire on 26th and 27th September, as the teams of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales battled to become ‘Champion Nation of the Year’. In glorious weather, the four national teams of twelve club golfers playing in pairs in a better ball match play format, played out two dramatic semi-finals on Day 1, with both matches finishing level at 3 points each. This necessitated the pre-selected ‘names in the envelope’ to be utilised with one pair per country playing out sudden-death!

The first play-off needed three attempts on the difficult 415 yard, par 4, eighteenth hole before the Welsh pairing of Barry James of Drayton Park and Trevor Harrhy of Frilford Heath edged out Sean Lapper and Stephen King of Cherwell Edge, representing England.

That was followed by Ireland’s Baden and Michael Maher of Killarney taking two attempts to beat the Scottish pair of George Thomson and Graeme McCann of The Glen GC, to join Wales in the next day final.

Day 2 saw the good weather and high quality golf maintained as the Grand Final between Ireland and Wales got underway. Although the duo of David Bailey and Kashif Shabir of St. Pierre got Wales into an early lead in Match 1, Ireland came storming back, taking leads in the next three matches. When the respective play-off heroes from Day 1 finished their head-to-head on the 17th, there was only one point in it with Ireland having the slender 3-2 advantage! It was all on the last match but the Irish Captain, Ian Dallas of Collingtree Park and his partner Fraser Thomson of Huddersfield GC proved too strong for the Welsh pair of Chris Gunn and Duncan Thomas of Maidenhead, closing out their match 4 and 3 to claim the trophy for IRELAND!

Ian Dallas, Captain of the victorious Team Ireland, said; “On behalf of all the competitors, I wish to thank the FOUR NATIONS GOLF CHALLENGE for such a fantastic event. We didn’t want for anything and we all felt like Ryder Cup players! I cannot believe that as club golfers, we have all received an ‘International Cap’ and to have captained my nation to victory will be a memory for ever”

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AS SEEN ON

2011 Four Nations Golf Challenge Grand Final Results
Better Ball Matchplay
	4 - 2
Robert Aitken	Wales wins 4 and 3	David Bailey
Jonathan Doherty		Kashif Shabir
Sarah Cleary	Ireland wins 5 and 3	Bruce Brown
Jeremy Cleary		Gary Cook
Brian McClements	Ireland wins 1 Up	Leighton Rees
Billy McClements		Luke Nedza
Paul S Byrne	Ireland wins 5 and 4	Craig Jones
Paul Byrne		Chris Griffiths
Baden Maher	Wales wins 2 and 1	Trevor Harrhy
Michael Maher		Barry James
Fraser Thomson	Ireland wins 4 and 3	Chris Gunn
Ian Dallas		Duncan Thomas