Thirty-fifth anniversary of Mullingar’s Grolife victory

While 2020 was not perhaps the best year for golf it does however mark the 35th anniversary of a wonderful win by Mullingar Golf Club in the national final of the inaugural Grolife all-Ireland team trophy competition.

The event, organised by the Links Society and in association with the Irish Times newspaper, was contested by 16 teams - four from each of the four qualifying regions.

Representing Mullingar were the then Mr Captain Matt Talbot playing of eight, Lady Captain Maeve O’Neill playing of 16 and Honorary Secretary Albert Lee playing of seven. The format of the competition was the best two scores out of three counting at each hole.

Drawn against Nuremore in the final, the Mullingar team found themselves two points behind at the turn. Mullingar however drew level on the 11th where Matt Talbot had a net eagle and Maeve O’Neill had a net birdie for a great return of seven points.

Mullingar were able to go ahead and consolidate their lead on the 13th where Maeve made another fine contribution. Mullingar were still one point clear on after the 17th when Matt and Albert both pitched and putted for net birdies on the final green.

The high standard of play by the Mullingar golfers was reflected in their individual scores where Matt had a total of 27 points, Albert 38 points and Maeve a great score of 42 points. Maeve, a former nine handicapper who was forced to give up the game for five years because of family commitments, was on the card 16 times contributing a total of eight net birdies from nine gross pars.

Played at the Hermitage Golf Course with an abundance of challenging holes the Mullingar team were not intimidated by the trees. Indeed they saw them not as obstacles but as guides according to Albert. All three players were able to keep out of trouble with their great accuracy, off the tee and from general play.

In addition to Maeve’s wonderful scoring, both Albert and Matt contributed to the win with five net and three net birdies respectively.

(Extract from Irish Times article, ‘Splendid Mullingar surge too much for Nuremore’, dated May 30, 1985 by Dermot Gilleece).

On other matters members are reminded to keep an eye on their emails regarding a notice to hold branch and club AGMs. In order to comply with Government guidelines on Covid-19 restrictions it is anticipated that the AGMs will not be of the usual format but will be conducted accordingly. Full details regarding same will be available to members in due course.