20th All Ireland Title For Geraldine Ward

This history making just keeps on going as Geraldine Ward picked up a phenomenal 20th All Ireland individual title in Cement P&P at the weekend at the Ladies All Ireland Strokeplay Championship finals.
After a close battle throughout the first 36 holes, Ger was sitting in 2nd position behind her recent rival for supremacy in Ryston starlet Chrissie Byrne by just one shot as they were -8 and -7 respectively. Glenda Hoey of RGSC also made the final 6 playoffs on -4 as she went in search for a first Senior title. Glenda’s challenge though fell short on the back 9 of the final 18 holes but she produced a brilliant display up that point and her emergence in the Senior Grade will reap its rewards very shortly if the upward curve continues.
Ger out behind in the final group though was starting to turn the screw from the early stages of the front 9 as Byrne made an early mistake which was punished and by the 9th Ger had opened a two-stroke advantage on -9. Chrissie’s sister, Marian was always struggling to catch the ladies in behind her but stuck on very well to grab the 3rd place spot as Ger and Chrissie traded blows on the back 9. The lead was cut to one at a stage but a birdie on the penultimate hole gave Ger a lead in which she wouldn’t relinquish and she finished out with a tap-in par to take the title once again by 2 shots in the end.
Another fantastic display by Ger and another brilliant result for Dublin Pitch and Putt over the weekend and this season.
It was a somewhat mixed bag for the Intermediate and Junior Ladies in the All-Ireland Strokeplays on the Saturday in the Cement P&P Club in Co.Louth.
After some decent starts some of our competitors fell away with poor 2nd rounds. Catherine Fox was the only Junior lady to put her name in the mix after a good start but she fell short of making the playoff by 2 strokes. The title was won by Margaret Forde of the Riverdale Club in Tipperary.
As the Inters began it was hoped that Lucans Philo Condron would continue her good recent as our main threat to win the title. Philo took the pressure in her stride as she went into an early lead after the first round. She would follow that up with another solid round to sit in 2nd place just 3 strokes behind the leader.