The third staging of the annual Sean O Longain Inter-Schools cup was held in Portsalon Golf Club on Saturday.
Conditions were as close to perfect as a links course could offer and some excellent scoring was had. This competition is contested by teams made up of members representing the various schools and centres of Donegal VEC and it was great to see so many of the centres represented.
The Winning school this year was the Finn Valley College team, this year represented by Paddy Mc Daid, Paul Mc Ginley and Rory White. This is the third year in a row that a team representing Finn Valley College has won the competition, and indeed is the third different team formation from the school to have triumphed.
This year’s competition proved to be a very closely fought battle indeed with just a single point separating the top three teams. Runners up on the day, with an excellent effort were the Abbey Vocational School ladies team made up of Celine Markey, Miriam Bennett and Mary Walsh, the ladies narrowly defeating the VEC Head Office team of Jim Mc Glynn, Marcel Mc Cafferty and society captain Dessie Larkin on a break of tie into third place.
The fickle nature of this wonderful yet infuriating game was classically illustrated on the 18th hole, where with all three scores to count, the FVC team somehow managed a chip-in, another impossible chip from against the bridge and a 40ft putt! The VEC head office team were dealt the harsher hand of golfing fate with a missed short putt on the same hole which proved to be the difference between third place and top spot. Such is golf and it was not to be for Head Office this year and Finn Valley’s remarkable run continues.
Aside from the team competition, there were also valuable golfer of the year points on offer for the individual scores. Top individual scorer, amazingly this was his 3rd time to top score in the team event, was Abbey Vocational’s Oliver Plunkett with a fine 36pts. Michael Mc Grath representing the other FVC team was second with 34pts and Rory White third with 33pts.
Mr O Longain and his wife Eileen were the guests of honour on the day and during his address the former CEO spoke of how nice it was to be asked back to functions like this. He also spoke of his delight at seeing Finn Valley College in general doing so well after moving into their fantastic new school in Drumboe.
Only two outings remain in the race for golfer of the year now and it promises to go down to the wire with Crana College’s Kevin Murphy holding a narrow lead over the FVC pair of Paddy Mc Daid and Paul Mc Ginley. Next month sees the President’s outing to Narin and Portnoo GC on November 12th.
ENDS
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