In a fantastic opening day of action at the AIG Junior Cup Finals, Rockmount and Malone set up a mouth-watering all-Ulster Women’s semi-final tie in the glorious sunshine at Athlone Golf Club.
16 teams made their way to the shores of Hodson Bay with quarter-final ties in the AIG Women’s and Men’s Junior Cup down for decision.
Malone were the first to book their spot in the AIG Women’s Junior Cup semi-final, a comprehensive 4 to 1 victory over Bearna with Rachel Taylor, Eva Branks and Oonagh McClure picking up three points from the first three matches to safely see the Ulster North Champions through.
Rockmount made sure of the all-Ulster Semi-final tie when Andrea Watson took the win on the 18th hole in Match 2, securing a 3.5 to 1.5 victory over The Island.
An emotional Carol Blyth, captain of the Ulster South winning side was delighted with how her team performed and is expecting to see some familiar faces when tomorrow’s match gets underway.
“This is a very tough category so to get to the semi-final stage tomorrow is a fantastic achievement, delighted,” said Blyth.
“I’m sure there will be a few familiar faces so there’s pluses and minuses to that. It will be a good match and I’m sure it will be very closely contested.”
The other end of the draw will see Wicklow take on Cork as Powerscourt and Fota Island were victorious in their quarter-final ties, both taking 4 to 1 wins over Gowran Park and Castletroy respectively.
In the AIG Men’s Junior Cup, it was Athenry who were the first team through to the next round with a 3.5 to 1.5 win over Massereene. Ciaran Coughlan holing the winning putt on the 16th hole to send the Galway side through.
The Tribesmen will face off against Dundalk tomorrow. The Louth men coming through one of the tightest match ups of the day with Clem Walshe finally settling the nail-biting proceedings on the 18th hole in Match 5 for a 3 to 2 victory.
Once again it came down to Match 5 for a winner to be found in the Castletroy versus Monkstown match with the latter coming out on top.
Kevin Power holding off a late fightback from Ger Callanan to seal victory on the 18th green.
“It was a massive game and Castletroy played super golf, the two teams played super golf but last putt and last green that’s the way it always is and thankfully it went our way this time and hopefully we get an easier game tomorrow. Nothing easy in this game,” said Monkstown captain Anthony O’Sullivan.
“We’re looking forward to it now, we have a night up tonight and we’ll enjoy tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll have a long day tomorrow.”
The final tie on the course proved to have one of the most decisive results of the afternoon with Abbeyleix putting together a stellar performance to take the first three matches comfortably to knock out the 2022 champions Castle and put the almost 130-year-old club into the mix tomorrow.
View the quarter-final results here