Roganstown was the venue for the eighth staging of the Fightmaster Cup, and the trophy is heading back across the Atlantic with the defending champions securing a one-point victory after three days of thrilling competition.
The Fightmaster Cup pits the best one-armed golfers from Europe against North American counterparts in Ryder Cup-style format, played over three days.
Led by home favourite and team captain, Cian Arthurs, the Europeans took a slender one-point advantage into the final day’s singles matches after all sessions barring the opening foursomes (which Europe won 2.5-1.5) on Wednesday ended in 2-2 ties, and with all 12 players from each side squaring off in singles battle on the final day, each point was going to prove crucial.
The visitors drew first blood with Jesse Florkowski swiftly dispatching England’s Robert Paul, and the sides traded the next two matches with Matt Gamble getting Europe on the board and Sophia Howard handing Lee Valley’s Martin O’Mahony his first defeat having won all three of his paired matches (Two in fourballs, one in foursomes).
Arthurs delivered a captain’s performance to take down Steve Shipuleski 6&5 in match number four, and when Reinhard Schuhknecht secured a 3&2 win in match number five, Europe’s advantage had grown to two points with seven matches still on course.
But then the tide turned as four matches in a row went in North America’s favour – the second of these saw Trim’s Brendan Swan go down 4&3 to Vince Biser.
Jim Darragh kept European hopes of a reversal alive with a 3&1 win in the third-to-last match on the course, but they’d need to win the remaining two if they were to wrestle the cup back from North America who’d ended Europe’s push for a six-in-a-row in Louisville, Kentucky back in 2023.
Ryder Barr secured the winning point when he defeated Steve Hutchinson 3&1 in the penultimate match, before Rob Jenkins brought the final point in Europe’s direction, leaving the final score 14.5-13.5 in favour of the visitors and now back-to-back Fightmaster Cup champions, North America.
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