The birdsong of late evening provided a pleasant musicality to an absorbing tussle between Greystones schoolboy David Byrne (17) and Co Sligo’s Gary McDermott under slate grey skies at Connemara Golf Club on the penultimate day of the AIG-sponsored, Irish Amateur Close Championship.
Two golfers, two caddies, one referee and nine spectators made the pilgrimage to the fourth tie hole before the issue was decided in somewhat unlikely fashion at 7.40pm. Byrne, two putted from 100 feet, while his opponent could only grimace as he watched his five-foot par putt burn the edge of the hole and keep going.
It was a cruel sporting moment. McDermott had trudged his way to the 24th hole in the morning to secure a victory over Jeff Hopkins. That doesn’t convey the full story. On the second tie hole, the Royal Dublin golfer holed from 40 feet for birdie only to see McDermott follow him in from 30 feet. At that moment the Sligo man received a faint nod from destiny.
His place in this morning’s semi-finals seemed assured when he was two holes up playing the 17th in his afternoon match but Byrne, a fifth year student in St David’s School in Greystones, demonstrated great resilience in refusing to accept what appeared an inevitable defeat.
He explained: “I just said to my caddie Niall, who has been here all week and has been great, that if I can birdie the last two and see what happens, it would give me the best shot; I happened to do it. It was pretty nerve racking. I’m pretty tired and in need a good night’s sleep.”
McDermott will be tortured by the nature of the defeat as much as the 11 hours of golf he endured bisected by a 40-minute break. The putter ran cold in the final two holes of regulation and also those that ensued as three times he saw birdie putts from inside 10 feet stay above ground. There’s no doubt that fatigue was a predominant factor, mental and physical.
Byrne will face the silver medal winner as leading qualifier for the matchplay stages, Cormac Sharvin, who demonstrated the aptitude to grind out a one-hole victory – albeit with a birdie, eagle flourish to finish – over Eddie McCormack in the morning and then produce some sumptuous golf on the back nine to edge past friend, room-mate and travelling companion Ryan McKinstry.
'Really struggled'
Sharvin admitted: "I really struggled in my game against Eddie who was very unlucky. He missed a few putts and I held a few. He had me under pressure the whole time. I knew I had to do something. To hole a 30-footer across the hill on 17 to go one up and he was inside me and missed was crucial. Holing that putt (25 feet) up the hill on 18 for eagle was a bonus. It's not very often I get the putter going as hot as I have the past few days."
He showed little mercy in the afternoon for McKinstry, producing a barrage of birdies from the 10th to close out the match on the 16th. But undoubtedly the players who produced the most devastating salvo of red figures was Jonathan Yates (Naas) – he celebrated his 20th birthday on Monday – who birdied five of the first seven holes against Portmarnock’s Geoff Lenehan in the afternoon.
He explained: “I’m usually on the other end of that kind of stick. I came out of the blocks flying. I felt really good. it was going really nicely. Geoff kind of fought back on me (the match went to the 16th). To be honest there was not much momentum his way.”
So what did he say to you after the blistering start. Yates smiled: “He came over to me on the fourth and he said do you mind if I walk in now, or will I wait for a few more.”
He will renew a recent rivalry with the East of Ireland champion Paul Dunne, whom he met in a Barton Shield foursomes a fortnight ago. The University of Alabama undergraduate has enjoyed a number of convincing victories but he showed a facility to tough things out when he came from two down at the turn to beat Delgany’s Simon Bryan by one hole.
It promises to be a great day’s golf.
