The 2018 Colaiste Choilm winning team

Colaiste Choilm from Ballincollig booked their place in the Munster Schools final on Monday with a hard fought win over De La Salle Waterford.  The reigning Munster champions were back in Castlemartyr, the venue where they won last year.  And they were up against the 2018 beaten finalists in the semi final.  Lee Valley’s Keelan McCarthy led the way for the Ballinollig side, he had a two hole win over Rory Milne to win the first point.  Zak Collins had to go to the 19^th before he saw off the challenge from Alex King to win a second point.  Both Stephen Riordan and Jack O’Keeffe lost out to level the match at 2-2, meaning the match would be decided by John Lehane and Alex Browne.  That match went all the way to the 18^th before Lehane secured the winning point for Colaiste Choilm.  In the second semi-final Colaiste an Spioraid Naoimh were very unlucky not to make it an all-Cork final.

The Bishopstown students were up against St Josephs Ballybunion and this too was a tight match.  Robbie Walsh and Jack Lucey put points on the board for the Cork side but James Walsh, Ben O’Connor and Eoghan Hallihan all lost out in the later stages of their games to see St Joesph’s advance.  Although the final was scheduled to take place in the afternoon the forecasted rain came early with lasted through the morning and early afternoon.  Unfortunately for all of the golfers, the rain persisted and a heavy downpour around lunchtime made the course unplayable.  Colaiste Choilm and St Joesph’s will now have to wait until the rescheduled date for the final is announced by Munster Golf.  The weather also had an impact on the Schools Junior Championship.  In fairness to the younger golfers, they all stayed out on the course and tried to finish their Strokeplay rounds, but the heavy rain resulted in flooded greens meaning that play had to be abandoned.  There were two Cork colleges in action, St Francis College Rochestown and St Colmans College Fermoy, with St Flanans from Ennis and Abbey Community School from Waterford also involved.