A touch of quality, rather than spice, was the catchword as four players who have all achieved some success on the international stage progressed to the semi-final stages on another physically and mentally demanding day in the Leinster Women's Amateur Open Championship, sponsored by MacGregor, at the K Club yesterday.
"What's she doing pushing her own cart?" remarked one American green-fee as Yvonne Cassidy glided by, in the middle of her fourth round in two days. Quite simply, Cassidy, who works with the Irish Region PGA, prefers to operate without a caddie's assistance and the 1994 Leinster champion was one of the quartet who safely negotiated a passage through to the semi-finals.
Cassidy will face the former British Amateur champion Lillian Behan in one penultimate duel, while leading qualifier Alison Coffey, from Warrenpoint, the only non-Leinster survivor, will come up against the defending champion, Hazel Kavanagh.
It wasn't a day for flamboyant behaviour; instead, those who demonstrated good course management generally got the rewards. In the quarter-finals, Cassidy - who trailed early on in the match - overcame Maura Morrin, of Naas, by 3 and 2; Behan was an impressive 5 and 4 winner over Strabane's Helen Jones; Coffey, who'd won by a 9 and 8 margin over Kate Overend in the first round, eked out a 2 and 1 win over Ulster inter-provincial colleague Emma Dickson, while Kavanagh needed a birdie on the last to defeat Bronagh McCann.
Semi-final opponents Cassidy and Behan were surprisingly dropped from the international team last year; and Behan, especially, still has people approaching her and telling how unfair the omission was.
Behan was one down after two against Jones in her quarter-final, sank a 20 footer for birdie at the sixth to level matters and then won the eighth, in par, and the ninth, in birdie, to turn two up on Jones and cruised to a comfortable win.
Cassidy three-putted the fifth to go one down on Morrin, but then won three successive holes to gain the initiative and move into the semi-finals. In contrast, holder Kavanagh had a far tougher time in overcoming McCann. The Grange player was one down as she approached the notoriously difficult closing stretch. However, she won the 15th - somewhat against the odds - and then finished 4-3-4, that 10 foot birdie on the last giving her a one-hole win.
Coffey, meanwhile, maintained the fine form she showed in the stroke-play qualifying by easing through her opening match-play encounters. She was two under par for the 10 holes required to beat Overend, and then played "consistently" to beat Dickson. Coffey was one up at the turn, went two clear by taking the 13th in par where Dickson was bunkered with her second shot and was brought back to just one up when her opponent chipped in for a birdie three at the 14th. However, Dickson's tee-shot at the 16th found water and that gave Coffey the cushion she needed to book her semi-final place.
