The year in review Amateur men
Of all the holes on the old course at Ballybunion, the 18th is a touch quirky. It measures just 379 yards and there are days when all it takes is an iron off the tee followed by a short iron approach through a tunnel of sand hills to reach the elevated green.
Yet, for all its idiosyncrasies, it contrives to produce many dramatic moments - and so it was in this year's men's amateur Home Internationals where it dispensed heartache and joy in equal measures before Ireland regained the Raymond Trophy for the first time since 1992.
That 18th hole was at the heart of the win. On the second day, after Ireland had opened their campaign with a win over Wales, it required an outrageous right-to-left breaking 45-footer from Mark Campbell in his halved match to give the home side an 8-7 win over England. But the fickle mistress that is golf seemed set to enact revenge the next day against Scotland, as one match after another turned on the 18th with the Scots - incredibly - reaping all the dividends.
For a long time, it had seemed the 18th, a moody beast which proffered favours the previous day, would exact revenge. As points and half-points slipped away, some Irish players must have wondered why such a fate was befalling them; in all, four players got to the 18th only to be tormented in their quest for wins.
Ireland - who had trailed 1S-3S after the morning foursomes - eked out enough points to claw their way back in the singles and, if the Triple Crown was to evade their grasp, the main target of winning the championship was achieved after they drew with the Scots, Justin Kehoe claiming the vital win.
It was also an event which marked a remarkable three weeks for Noel Fox. Along with Athlone's Colm Moriarty, he had been a member of the Britain and Ireland team - captained by Garth McGimpsey - that made history at Ganton by winning a third successive Walker Cup. While Moriarty turned professional, Fox - who earlier in the year had won the Irish Open amateur strokeplay championship - stayed an amateur to assist Portmarnock to win the Irish Senior Cup at Lisburn and help Ireland regain the Raymond Trophy.
Elsewhere, the West of Ireland was won by Mark Ryan; the East of Ireland by Michael Sinclair; the North of Ireland by Brian McElhinney, and the South of Ireland by Mervyn Owens. Galway's Mark O'Sullivan captured the Irish Close title, while McElhinney also claimed the European strokeplay championship.
