AIG Barton Shield breakthrough for Lisburn as Roscommon wins Women’s Senior Foursomes

The Lisburn team and the Green Pennant after winning the AIG Men’s Barton Shield Final at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club. Photo: Thos Caffrey / Golffile.

Lisburn were the winners of the AIG Men’s Barton Shield, while Roscommon took the AIG Women’s Senior Foursomes title after a thrilling day in the sunshine at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club.

Lisburn team captain Norman McNellis was delighted to win the AIG Barton Shield title and clinch their club's first-ever green pennant after years of trying to make it to the All-Ireland finals.

Scoring

Lisburn battled hard throughout the morning matches against a strong Carton House team.

Chris Moulds holed a crucial putt on the 14th hole to build momentum and get his match back to all square having been three down through nine holes.

Carton House’s David Shiel holed a long putt on the last hole for birdie and Moulds once again holed a critical 15-footer to halve the hole which resulted in Carton House winning the first match 1 up.

Lisburn birdied the 17th in their back match to take the advantage and be 2 up heading down the last. Aaron Marshall hit a hybrid from 229 yards to 15 feet to set his match up for the win.

A two-putt birdie was enough for Marshall and Ryan Symington to win their match and give Lisburn the green pennant.    

“Right now it's all a bit surreal. It's so, so, so hard to win. We’ve been trying for the best part of 100 years and never ever got to an All-Ireland finals week.

“This is our first one. We were massive underdogs, particularly in the final, but we ground it out last night. Needed to win the 18th to get it down tie holes and won on the first tie hole,” said McNellis  

“Then this morning we were behind all the way around, certainly all the way around the front nine and it didn’t look great. But to be fair to our guys they ground it out and it began to dawn on me, say around the 15th or 16t. that it was possible.

“But it never ever became a reality until Aaron hit that 229-odd yard hybrid to about 15 feet and in the end we had two putts, and with Aaron and Ryan over the two putts we were pretty confident we were going to get it done.

“We’re absolutely delighted. Looking forward to a good night tonight.”  

The Roscommon team, winners of the AIG Women’s Senior Foursomes Final during the National Interclub All Ireland Finals Block A in Dun Laoghaire. Photo: Thos Caffrey / Golffile.ie

Roscommon won their first AIG Women’s Senior Foursomes title after coming up just short a number of times in the past few years.   

Roscommon were out in front from the start and looked strong in their matches against Malone. Ruth Lennon and Joan O’Gara put the first point on the board for their team with a 5&3 win. Both the second and third match were dormy with two holes to go but it was Sinead Benedetti and Anne Quirke who sealed the title for Roscommon with a 2&1 win.   

Sheila Fallon, the Roscommon team captain, was thrilled to finally get over the line and take the cup back to their home club for the first time.   

“We are absolutely thrilled to have won the Senior Foursomes All-Ireland, so we are this year,” said Fallon.

“We’ve been trying for four or five times, six times even and we’ve always fallen at the last hurdle. It’s 20 years since we won an All-Ireland, so we are absolutely thrilled. The club are delighted. Everyone is delighted.

“I can't express how happy we are, and the matches were very tough, and they all played so well.”