There was more away-day heroics from Brendan Savage and Mark Quinn as they helped the Bright Castle Golf Club make it through to the last four of the southern section of the Ulster Senior Men Over 50s following an extremely hard-fought contest against Edenmore Golf Club on Sunday past.
Having accounted for both Ardglass and Mayobridge in their opening two rounds, Donal Smith’s side knew it would take a huge performance to progress even further, and that’s exactly how things panned out.
Bright’s low-men combo of Arnold Ennis and Kevin Dorrian battled valiantly in their home match, but ultimately the shots they were giving to their opponents told, and they fell to a 3&2 defeat. When news filtered through that Ian Craig and Al Higgins had lost to a similar score-line up at Edenmore, things looked bleak for the Coniamstown Road men. But a superb 2&1 away victory from Savage and Quinn kept their hopes alive.
It was now all down to Team Captain Smith and his playing partner, Brian Smyth. The Bright men made good use of the shots they were getting and were two up after seven holes, only to be pegged back to level at the end of the front nine. The vital match was still level through 12 holes, but a sudden burst at holes 14 through 16 left Smith and Smyth three up with three to play.
Needing only a half to send the overall match to extra holes, a fortunate enough par from the skipper after a very sketchy tee shot meant that overtime would be needed. Thankfully, Bright Castle were the designated home team, which meant the playoff would be on their home patch, and a rock-solid par from Brian Smyth saw a very relieved Bright Castle team through to the last four of the Ulster South section, where they will face the winners of the Blackwood and Clandeboye tie.
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