Lahinch Celebrate All Ireland Senior Cup Glory

2019 was always going to be a memorable one for Lahinch Golf Club as it played host to the Irish Open for the first time in the clubs history.

The positivity of having the international spotlight on the famous North Clare links was accentuated even further last weekend, as the club made more history by capturing the ILGU Senior Cup for the second consecutive season.

They did it the hard way too, as they travelled to Killarney before defeating the home club on the Killeen course with an excellent final display.

It was capped in dramatic fashion when Girl’s inter-provincial star Niamh O’Dwyer sank a brilliant eagle putt at the 16th hole to ensure back to back titles for her team as they defeated the Kerry side for the second year running.

It was a strong Lahinch team who descended on the Kingdom with three of the winning Munster women’s inter-provincial squad representing the North Clare club managed by Valerie Hassett and Aideen McCarthy. Sinead Sexton, Aideen Walsh and Sarah Cunningham all brought huge experience to the team and it was vital in getting over the line. That experience was even more important as Lahinch had to make the trip without the services of Girl’s International Aine Donegan.

Lahinch’s run to the final was an impressive one as they overcame Laytown-Bettystown 4-1 in their quarter-final showdown, with victories for Chloe Ryan, Aideen Walsh and Niamh O’Dwyer. Sinead Sexton and Sarah Cunningham halved their games when they were called in.

That form carried through to their last four tie with Woodbrook in a 4.5 to 0.5 victory. The result was never in doubt with Chloe Ryan, Sinead Sexton, Aideen Walsh and Sarah Cunningham all registering comfortable wins while Niamh O’Dwyer took a half when her game was called in. Having lost to Lahinch 12 months ago, Killarney were in equally impressive form as they cruised through to the decider.

Chloe Ryan, who returned to the Irish team this year, got the ball rolling with a 3 and 2 win over Mairead Martin before Sexton defeated Kelly Brotherton 5 and 4. Killarney’s Tracy Eakin gave the home side their first point with victory over Aideen Walsh before Girls’ interprovincial O’Dwyer eagled the 16th from long range to beat Killarney’s Lady Captain Mary Sheehy 4 and 2 to secure the title. Sarah Cunningham’s tie was called in as Lahinch took a 3.5 to 1.5 victory.

While the celebrations got underway almost immediately, one member of the Lahinch team had to miss out on the party as Chloe Ryan had to return to London where she is training to be a solicitor. She was not allowing that from dampening her joy at back to back titles for the club.

She said: “Everyone is so happy to win again this year. Mairead and I had a great match today, and we had 16 birdies between us. I wasn’t part of the team who won last year but I’ve been a member of Lahinch since I was 16 so I am delighted to have played this year and help the team get over the line”.

Joint manager Valerie Hassett feels it is a massive achievement to put titles back-to-back.

“Defending it was special because it is always difficult to do. We have a superb team and we were even stronger than last year. We didn’t have our number one player Chloe Ryan last year because she was studying in London but we had her back this time around and she really made a huge difference. We have had limited success really over the years. We have won the Munster section a few times since the 1980’s but we never seemed to do well in the All-Ireland series. We have a young bunch now and they are very talented. We have four internationals on our team and they are all well up there on various panels. We had the likes of Aine Donegan involved who is going to the World Junior championships and each player we have is really talented” she noted.

With the feel-good factor from the Irish Open and this national title now sitting in Lahinch Golf Club, Valerie is confident that more good times lie ahead.

“This will certainly encourage the younger players and even when we were in Killarney the junior girls club team were in action against Royal Tara in the All-Ireland series. Even when they got beaten, they were out watching the senior team playing and they are all fired up now to push on to make the standard. It is a really positive time for the ladies section in the club and our intermediate team are in Munster action this weekend so generally speaking we have good success at the moment throughout the ladies section across the grades” she said.