The Green Tour Match Play 2015
The Green Tour Matchplay, is heating up as the lineups for the bracket finals / quarterfinals are all set.
In the Padraig Harrington bracket, Jim O’Sullivan has home advantage over Colm Reilly. O’Sullivan hasn’t had a hole-in-one yet this year which makes it a pretty barren year for him, so his match against Reilly may the one where he breaks his duck. Off the back of a handy win against Noel Goggin, O’Sullivan should have an edge. That edge is likely to be a slim one though – Reilly has been in good form with victory over two of Norn Iron’s fiercest competitors in Peter Casey and Ian Murdock. In a bracket that included David Walsh among its number, winning the last match in the bracket will be a big accomplishment in itself.
In the Darren Clarke bracket, Bernard McGuinness eked out narrow wins against two of the Druid Hills boys in Ciaran O’Flaherty and Michael Walsh, and will face Irial Finan for a place in the semifinals. Finan has been on fire – he backed up a comfortable victory over Paul Valentine with a sound thrashing of low handicapper Ciaran Morris. Morris at least had the satisfaction of beating last year’s Major winner Fergal Kearns 1up after a ding-dong battle and a repeat of last year’s final. On current form, Finan should be a safe bet and will take some beating from here on in.
Martin McDonnell had a good win against Kieran McGill, who accounted for Micheal Smith in the first round. As a recent winner of this major, McDonnell will want to show that his one major victory was not a flash in the pan. He’ll have his work cut out for him to win the Rory McIlroy bracket though – Don O’Reilly is a major winner too and must be the longest hitter on Tour (and before Kearns objects, part of the definition includes keeping the ball in play). A feature match in this bracket included the Oldcastle death match in the first round from which Eoin Lehane emerged as victor over Stephen Colman. O’Reilly accounted for Lehane to make it to the final and will not give an inch in his quest for glory.
The last bracket, the Graeme McDowell bracket, sees surprise packet Alan Monaghan take on favorite Brian Boland. Rookie Monaghan beat Chalky White in a match that reportedly was not easy on the eye, and then handed a beating to Michael O’Driscoll. Boland has lived up to his favorite tag thus far, comfortably accounting for Brian Mahony and Tom Daly in a serene procession to the bracket final. Daly had high hopes after accounting for his nemesis Michael McBrearty in the first round, but must now pin all his hopes for major success in 2015 on the Green Jacket.
The smart money is on an O’Sullivan / Boland pairing in the final match, with Boland winning to cart off his first Green Tour major. There is also the possibility of a Reilly / O’Reilly final; or perhaps Finan / McDonnell? With a lot of golf to play yet, stay tuned to see which one of the last eight can emerge victorious in 2015.
