MGA Wins Carey Cup -- First Time on Irish Soil

Carey Cup Contestants. Photo courtesy of the GUI.

The MGA Carey Cup team took a nailbiter from the Golfing Union of Ireland today in the Carey Cup Matches played at the European Club near Dublin.  Jim Liu, Cameron Young, and Max Buckley each won their singles matches while Mike Miller halved his to give the US team a 6.5 to 5.5 victory.

Yesterday's team competitions ended in a dead heat. The morning Foursomes saw Liu and Young team up to defeat Ireland's Alex Gleeson and Nicky Grant 5 and 4. Brian Komline and Joe Saladino halved their match while Buckley and Miller lost theirs 3 and 2 to Geoff Lenahan and Simon Ward.  In the afternoon Fourballs, Buckley and Komine beat Gleeson and Lenahan 4 and 3 while Miller and Joe Saladino halved their match and Liu and Young went down 3 and 2 to Brian Casey and Grant.

At one stage during the singles matches, with leads in four matches, it looked as if the GUI team might take the cup. The MGA team came through under pressure, though, with Walker Cup hopeful Mike Miller sinking a key putt from off the green on the 18th hole for a key half that put the Americans over the top.

MGA Team Captain Jeff Holzschuh, said afterward, “It is a great win. We just happened to get an extra point today, but it could have gone either way. We wanted  both Max and Mike who really had performed quite well yesterday to be the last two in the line up but the whole team played really well."

It was the second consecutive Carey Cup victory for the MGA and their first on Irish soil in the event’s ten match history.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf