So near and yet so far never applied more in a sporting sense to the Kerry men’s pitch and putt team at the National Inter-County Championships in Bagenalstown in Carlow at the weekend.
Despite leading at both the halfway and three-quarter stage, they had to settle for another second place in the end, following a strong finish to the singles by Cork in Bagenalstown.
Only two weeks after losing out to the Rebels on home turf in the Munsters in Tralee, Kerry very nearly turned the tables on the provincial winners with a brave and heroic display that saw the final outcome only decided in the final six holes for all players on both teams.
The Kerry team of Damien Fleming, Jason Cregan, Jason O’Regan, Michael Conway, Jamie Blake and Darren Goodall found themselves second after the initial 18 holes of Scotch Foursomes with a combined 22 under par, two behind Meath but four ahead of Cork at that stage.
The Saturday singles was their best round of the weekend in a tournament context with another 22 under par combined with Jason Cregan (-8), Damien Fleming (-6) and Michael Conway (-5) making up the majority of that total.
Overall Kerry led by eight from Corkovernight on a combined 44 under par with Sunday morning’s foursomes always going to be a big factor in the final outcome.
Cork reduced Kerry’s lead to one at the three-quarter mark as Kerry could only improve their score by 13 in the tough format as opposed to 20 for the former. Still on 57 under ahead of the concluding singles, Kerry held the overall lead but while doing
one better than their singles total, the previous day could not cope with a Cork power finish in the last nine holes.
Fleming, Cregan, O’Regan and Conway all brought in five under par rounds as part of the concluding singles in bringing the team to a final total of 80 under par but Cork had 30 under for their last singles round with both Eoin and John Walsh both bringing in eight under par rounds.
That meant they had the Anchor Cup once again on 86 under par as both counties were well clear of third place Dublin who finished on 67 under par.
Despite the obvious disappointment at not getting over the finishing line first Kerry – including sub Gavin Carroll and team manager James Fleming– can be proud of their efforts as they maintained their record at winning a medal at every Munster and National Inter-County event since the events recommenced in 2022.
Amidst the excitement about the men’s performance it was great in Bagenalstown to see the Kerry ladies team of Eileen McCarthy, Charlotte Blake, Lisa and Catriona O’Connor end the county’s long absence from the female event even if they finished down the order in the event.
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