It could have been better, but it could have been a lot worse too. John Moloughney, the non-playing Irish captain, perhaps got it right when describing the halved match with defending champions England in the Boys' Home Internationals at Portmarnock Golf Club yesterday as "a fair day's work".
In an Ireland-England encounter that see-sawed one way and then the other, Eren Behcet was forced to hole a putt on the last green in the decisive singles match, for a one hole win over Forrest Little's Eoin Arthurs, to ensure that honours finished even. Meanwhile, Scotland, the European champions, beat Wales in the other match, although the match was a good deal tighter than the 10-5 final score suggests.
At one stage in the morning foursomes, Ireland - up in three matches and level in the other - appeared set to take an imposing lead into the 10 singles. It wasn't to be, however, as England staged a fightback to leave matters level at two and a half points each. Derek McNamara won the top match against David Porter by one hole, and the other Irish wins were delivered by David Gannon and fellow international debutante Clancy Bowe, the only two Irish players to win both of their matches, while Philip McLaughlin and Martin McTernan fought back to win their respective encounters. Gannon, indeed, chipped in at the 14th to claim a 5 and 4 win over English boys' champion Yasin Ali, a plusthree handicapper, for arguably the most notable scalp of the day.
In the end, though, it all came down to the Behcet-Arthurs encounter. Behcet had gone one up on the 17th when he punched an eight iron approach in to 10 feet but, on the 18th, it came down to a putting contest as the two players played exceptional approaches: Arthurs, first, to seven feet, and Behcet to nine. After Behcet sent his first putt three feet past the hole, Arthurs had a birdie putt to win. But, agonisingly, and almost in slow motion, it shaved the hole and Behcet holed out to ensure a halve match.
Ireland face Wales today and tomorrow will face Scotland, their conquerors in last month's European final.
