McKibbin and Galligan lead in Bridgestone Boys race
IRELAND Boys competed at home and abroad over the weekend with Elm Park’s Robert Galligan impressing against Wales in Rosslare while Holywood’s Tom McKibbin was the leading performer at the Quadrangular Tournament in Chantilly in France.
Ireland were beaten 11-5 by Wales in their annual boys international match at Rosslare (16-17 March).
Meanwhile Ireland lost out to strong French (4.5-0.5) and Spanish (4-1) sides at Quadrangular.
Their final match against
Italy was declared a half when the weather forced play to be abandoned as the first game reached the turn.
McKibbin picked up 20 points in total on the Bridgestone Boys International Order of Merit – 10 points for his 4&2 win against Spain’s David Puig and another 10 more points following halves in his other matches.
Bad weather also curtailed the action on day one in Rosslare, where Wales took 6.5 points from the truncated 12-hole opening day.
Elm Park’s Robert Galligan put the only win on the board for Ireland with a two hole success against Tom Peet while Baltinglass’ Joseph Byrne battled his way to half a point against James Ashfield.
Ireland’s fortunes improved considerably on day two winning 3.5 points as Galligan and Byrne again impressed in difficult conditions with two wins as Keaton Morrison also securing a one-hole margin over Rueben Bather and Seapoint’s Dylan Keating holed from 12 feet at the last to halve with Sean David.
The match against Wales formed part of the GUI’s High Performance programme for Junior Golf in 2019.
The GUI’s High Performance Programme at underage level is supported by Sport Ireland, Sport NI and The R&A.
Bridgestone Boys International Order of Merit:
1. T McKibbin, R Galligan 20 pts;
3. J Byrne 15; 4. K Morrison 10; T5 D Keating, A Marshall, L O’Neill, O Maguire, J McCabe, M Kennedy 5