McGovern flying high at Trim

Headfort golfer and PGA professional Brendan McGovern was flying high at the Gulf Air International at Knightsbrook, Trim last week. McGovern, the professional at Headfort for almost 20 years, and amateur partner Fred Reilly carded a nine-under-par 63 to win the Irish regional qualifier for the Gulf Air International Pro-Captain Challenge which is supported by BMW. Other Meath golfers who featured included former PGA Cup player John Dwyer from Ashbourne and his partner Aidan Punch who took the runner-up position and were only two shots adrift on seven-under for the par 72 course. Further down the leaderboard were Paddy McGuirk (Co Louth), John Byrne (Royal Tara) and Eugene McEneaney (Knightsbrook) in a competition which attracted 50 pairs. McGovern and Reilly booked their place in the 36-hole grand final to be held at the Royal Golf Club in Bahrain later this year. However, they were unaware how well they had done as McGovern had to head back to Headfort before the event had finished as he had a series of evening lessons to take. 'I was teaching a group class at 6.30 so it was back to the day job,' said McGovern, who was delighted to have qualified for the final having come within a shot of making it on a couple of occasions in the past. Fifteen-handicapper Reilly played a crucial role in the victory also. He made nett birdies on the first two holes to get his team off to a flying start and after McGovern had picked up shots at the next two, Reilly came in with another two birdies. The professional picked up two more shots to leave the Headfort pair eight under after eight holes. They had a bogey on the 11th, but McGovern carded their only two birdies on the back nine at the 15th and 17th to lift the score back to nine under - which proved to be good enough for victory. 'I have been close in this a couple of times but never got there and I"ve always wanted to win it,' added McGovern. 'If your captain plays well you have a chance and Fred had four nett birdies in his card, it"s not always about the pro.' Each of the PGA"s seven regions provides one pair for the final in the Middle East, which is supplemented by the host club"s professional and captain and the winners of an international qualifier. 'This is a great trip, it is such a good one to win, we"re really looking forward to it. I"ve been to Bahrain a couple of times,but only passing through,' he concluded. Trim golfer Brendan Swan lost to American opponent Alan Gentry at the Fightmaster Cup, a competition for one-armed golfers that is run in conjunction with the Ryder Cup. North America defeated Team Europe 19.5 to 8.5. All the games were very close and played in near impossible conditions with winds gusting up to 75 mph as hurricane Ike passed close by.