Leinster's young guns blow Munster away to end seven-year wait for Interpros
Old Tom and the Young guns. Seamus McParland (Team Captain) and Jerome Clancy (Team Manager) with the victorious Leinster Team (from left) Rowan Lester, Richard Bridges, Alan Lowry, Paul McBride, Jeff Hopkins, Conor O'Rourke, Kevin Le Blanc and Thomas Mulligan surround the statue of Old Tom Morris at the 2015 Interprovincial Championship at Rosapenna Golf Club today (08/07/2015). Picture by Pat Cashman
Munster’s bid for a third Interprovincial Championship victory in four years was crushed decisively by Leinster’s young guns on the Sandy Hills Links at Rosapenna Hotel and Golf Resort in Donegal.
Having cruised to wins over Connacht and Ulster over the first two days, it came down to a head-to-head between the favourites that ended with a young Leinster side running out easy winners by 8.5 to 2.5.
The result ends a seven-year winless streak for Leinster in the matches and heralds the start of a new era for the new wave of young Irish stars in a week that now clashes with the six-man European Amateur Team Championships in Sweden.
With the majority of that six-man team set to turn professional, Ireland needs new stars and they have found some in Leinster (and elsewhere) with The Island’s Paul McBride, 19, leading the way with six points out of six.
Having just completed his first year at Wake Forest University, McBride led from the front, taking 16-year old Co Louth star Thomas Mulligan under his wing.
The oldest player on the Leinster team was 28 year old Richard Bridges, who did not play yesterday.
But even with the Stackstown man taking a break, their average age was just 20.8 in a clearly positive results for the youth policy put in place by Leinster Golf and Golfing Union of Ireland.
“We started off with a panel of 16 in January, cut it back and went for a youth policy in conjunction with the Sports Development Plan of the GUI and the Development squads within Leinster Golf and the GUI,” said Leinster’s non-playing captain Seamus McParland.
“Conor O’Rourke (23) is on the Development squad and Kevin Le Blanc (17), Rowan Lester (19) and Thomas Mulligan (16) are coming through the Boys programmes. We selected a young team and it clearly worked out with this victory. We are delighted.
“Paul McBride played No 1 all week in the singles and No 2 in the foursomes and got six out of six. He’s great player and has a great future.
“There is a new generation talented players coming through and we can see that hard work that Leinster Golf and the Golfing Union is doing is starting to pay off.”
With several members of the current national squad set to turn professional, including Bridges, a posse of Leinster young guns that also features Alan Lowry (22) and Jeff Hopkins (23) looks set to take centre stage.
They won all four foursomes to leave them needing just two points from the seven singles and they got those easily with McBride beating Robin Dawson 5 and 4 before Rowan Lester’s 2 and 1 win over John Hickey sealed Munster’s fate.
With two of the six-man Irish team set to miss the Home Internationals to play in the clashing US Amateur — Cormac Sharvin and Gary Hurley — there are several international places up for grabs over the next few weeks.
Lester’s haul of five and a half points out of six puts him in the frame alongside Kevin LeBlanc while Munster’s Eanna Griffin, who won five points out of six has also got a strong claim to an internatonal debut at Royal Portrush.
John Ross Galbraith looks good to hang on to his place after dropping just half a point in his six matches.
Interprovincial Championship, Rosapenna Golf Club (Sandy Hills Links)
Final Standings
- Leinster
- Munster
- Ulster
- Connacht
Results for Day 3 (Wednesday 8th July)
Match 1: Ulster 8½ Connacht 2½
Foursomes
- JR Galbraith & Tiarnan McLarnon beat Kelan McDonagh & Shaun Carter 1 hole
- Colm Campbell & William Hanna beat Joe Lyons & Ronan Mullarney 2/1
- Gareth Lappin & Jordan Hood halved with Eddie McCormack & Mark Morrissey
- Colin Fairweather & Stuart Bleakley beat Stephen Brady & Steffan O’Hara 3/2
Singles
- JR Galbraith beat Mark Morrissey 3/1
- Colm Campbell halved with Kelan McDonagh
- Tiarnan McLarnon halved with Eddie McCormack
- Gareth Lappin beat Ronan Mullarney 1 hole
- William Hanna lost to Joe Lyons 3/2
- Jordan Hood beat Steffan O’Hara 2 holes
- Stuart Bleakley beat Stephen Brady 1 hole
Match 2: Leinster 8½ Munster 2½ (Leinster names first)
Foursomes
- Kevin Le Blanc & Rowan Lester beat Eanna Griffin & Ian O’Rourke 1 hole
- Paul McBride & Thomas Mulligan beat Robin Dawson & John Hickey 2/1
- Richard Bridges & Jeff Hopkins beat Gary O’Flaherty & Dave O’Donovan 2 holes
- Conor O’Rourke & Alan Lowry beat Pat Murray & Geoff Lenehan 2/1
Singles
- Paul McBride beat Robin Dawson 5/4
- Rowan Lester beat John Hickey 2/1
- Kevin Le Blanc lost to Eanna Griffin 2 holes
- Conor O’Rourke halved with Geoff Lenehan
- Alan Lowry halved with Gary O’Flaherty
- Thomas Mulligan halved with Pat Murray
- Jeff Hopkins beat Ian O’Rourke 4/3
