Once again, a dominant University College Dublin (UCD) outfit overcame the Dublin University Golf Club (DUGC) in the men’s Colours match on Friday. The contest, unusually for a Colours match in any sport, took place at both sides’ home, Portmarnock Golf Club. Common familiarity has often ensured that home advantage not be the deciding factor in the annual match up and some might say it has been important in UCD’s long period of dominance.
For DUGC, seeking to spring an upset, the morning foursomes proved costly to a team who couldn’t afford any missteps against a superb UCD side. Cian McCormack and Jack Killeen led out for Trinity but were quickly outmatched, falling to a 5&4 defeat. Club captain Conor O’Mara and Ian Smith fared better, pushing the UCD pairing to the final hole but ultimately losing 1 up. While Cillian Tully and Daire Creavin challenged at times, they too fell, this time at the 17th, losing 2&1. Conor Fitzgerald and Luke Flynn, having trailed for the majority of the match, finished with a 3&2 defeat. At 4-0 and going into the afternoon, the Trinity outfit had left themselves in the exact position they had been training to avoid.
The morning session, while competitive at times, left Trinity with a monumental lead to surmount. However, the singles offered more than just a glimmer of hope. By the ninth hole, Trinity were leading in five of nine matches and had clearly saved much of their best golf for the classic showdown.
Despite this resurgence a further one and a half point swing was required by the end of the session to gift the Trinity the bragging rights. With this in mind, DUGC were always chasing the contest and eventually the pressure told with UCD’s class and experience shining through. The students from Belfield once again exerted their dominance down the back nine, ultimately picking up 5.5 points to Trinity’s 2.5 in a session that had, however briefly, given DUGC hope of a first Colours title in 29 years. While Flynn and Smith won out in their head-to-heads, the morning session had left UCD out of sight.
Ultimately, UCD justified their position as overwhelming favourites again this year. With international players like Alex Gleeson and Johnny Yates in the side, the team from Dublin 4 made sure that the 2014 edition of colours, where the contest was halved, proved the only blip during such an historic period of success. DUGC will now be looking ahead to next season with no further matchplay events until October.
