"Woman of Steel" Coffey gives Dun Laoghaire Revive Active Fourball crown
Anne Coffey (Dun Laoghaire) sinks the winning putt in the 2018 Revive Active Fourball National Finals at Tullamore Golf Club. Picture: Jenny Matthews/Cashman Photography
Dun Laoghaire staged a remarkable comeback to win the Revive Active Fourball Championship at Tullamore.
They beat Kilrea 3-2 in the final when Anne Coffey and Fiona Scott came back from two down with two to play to beat Rose Shaw and Mo Bradley-Travis at the 20th.
Each team consists of five pairings, the lowest handicap in each match plays off scratch and will concede strokes to the other three players based on 90% of the difference between full handicaps.
Kilrea beat Galway Bay and Dun Laoghaire defeated Thurles, both matches decided 3-2, to make Sunday’s final.
The first two contests were won convincingly but with one match going to each team the tie still stood in the balance. However, a quick run of form for Northern Region champions Kilrea at the turn saw them take a significant advantage in the remaining three matches.
Lorna Torrens and Bridie McCloskey added the second point in favour of Kilrea which was equalled when Dun Laoghaire’s Anne Marie Garth and Yvonne Hill came back from a three-hole deficit – won on the 18th green.
In the fourth match, Rose Shaw and Mo Bradley-Travis looked poised to capture the title on the final green for Kilrea. But Shaw missed a putt for a match they dominated all day and eventually lost on the 20th to a determined Dun Laoghaire pair.
"We just kept believing, we battled really, really hard, I could barely believe it when we walked off the 18th green all square," explained Coffey, who holed a three-footer for the title and is now nicknamed the "Woman of Steel" having won two previous matches in extra holes on Dun Laoghaire’s road to the final.
"The 19th was a little scrappy but I hit a good shot into the 20th, and I told myself to take loads of deep breaths – this was my chance to be the hero and to try and take it, I’m still shaking!"
The “Woman of Steel” as her clubmates have now named her, had already won two previous matches on extra holes on Dun Laoghaire’s road to the final.
Revive Active National Final, Tullamore
Final
Kilrea 2 Dun Laoghaire 3 (Kilrea names first):
Una Bradley & Veronica Kelly lost to Fionnuala Halpin & Aoife Quinn 6&5,
Sharon Bradley & Roisin O’Hara beat Mai Tan & Ursula Archdeacon 7&6,
Lorna Torrens & Bridie McCloskey beat Susan Caslin & Aine Jolly 4&3,
Rose Shaw & Mo Bradley-Travis lost to Fiona Scott & Anne Coffey 20th,
Hazel Calderwood & Anne Marie Donaghy lost to Anne Marie Garth & Yvonne Hill 1 hole.
Semi-finals
Kilrea 3 Galway Bay 2
Una Bradley & Veronica Kelly lost to Fiona ODriscoll & Sharon Rooney 2&1
Sharon Bradley & Roisin O’Hara beat Mandy Cosgrave & Claire Noonan 3&2
Lorna Torrens & Bridie McCloskey lost to Helen O’Flaherty & Margaret Harkin 2&1
Rose Shaw and Mo Bradley-Travis beat Katie Coleman and Eilisa Molloy 2&1
Hazel Calderwood & Anne Marie Donaghy beat Fiona Caulfield & Patricia Melville 6&5.
Dun Laoghaire 3 Thurles 2
Fionnuala Halpin & Aoife Quinn beat Marian Finn & Pauline Byrne 5&4
Mai Tan & Ursula Archdeacon lost to Laura Ryan & Rita Holohan 4&3
Susan Caslin & Aine Jolly beat Annette Boland & Fionnuala Corcoran 4&3
Marie Igoe & Jacinta McGinley lost to Lorraine O’Keeffe & Maria Dempsey 4&2
Anne Marie Garth & Yvonne Hil beat Mary Coman & Mairead Clohessy 2&1.
