Musgrave Children's Hospital Club Challenge Final: Portugal provided a sun-drenched backdrop to the 2006 Musgrave Children's Hospital Club Challenge All Ireland Final, with Fermoy Golf Club eventually emulating their success of five years ago in South Africa. All four teams belied the twin demands of challenging courses and long nights to produce a high-quality tournament.

There was a maxim adopted from the opening throes, highlighting the importance of "living the prize", and none shirked that responsibility. The seven-day sojourn in the Algarve demanded stamina, and not just on the course. The social rigours of the trip, where grip, stance and alignment took on a completely different meaning after midnight, were embraced with gusto.

There wasn't an inch given or sought on the course, but the sportsmanship and grace exuded by all four teams was striking and made for a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable experience.

There wasn't a shortage of banter, and suffice to say the Fermoy boys were well aware of the esteem in which they were held by their rivals with the latter grouping trying to reconcile one particular afternoon's golf and the handicaps. They couldn't.

The issue of victory was debated right up until the final nine holes of the fourth round, with the Munster champions claiming a nerveless triumph in some style. The four provincial winners, Fermoy (Munster), Roscommon (Connacht), Rockmount (Ulster) and Roganstown (Leinster), had already endured stiff competition to make the national final and demonstrated that prowess over the differing demands of Pinta, Boavista, Morgado and Penina Golf Clubs.

To guarantee a place in one of the four provincial finals, a club had to run a qualifying competition and in the process garner at least €1,000, which goes to raising funds for the dedicated burns unit at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin. It's a superb cause that should demand an even greater response from the golf clubs of Ireland.

There is huge scope to increase the number of participants with the All Ireland final and the attendant prize a worthy incentive for all those who tee it up.

In this respect Musgraves' role can not be understated. Quite apart from their considerable sponsorship, they absorb all the administration costs so that every single euro raised goes to the dedicated burns unit of the hospital.

It's nine years since the inaugural staging of the tournament, and during that period over €1 million has been raised for the hospital.

Speaking at the dinner on the final night in Portugal, Chris Martin, the chief executive of the Musgrave Group, underlined that while Musgraves have become a big company they have not forgotten their community-based roots. This tournament supports that assertion.

If the first day belonged to the Roscommon team of father, Frank, and son, Francie, Grehan, the former Gaelic football All Star, and the quiet excellence of Brian Claffey, a whiff of competitive cordite was noted just 24 hours later.

It was on the second day of the tournament that Fermoy initially distanced themselves from their pursuers. Over the Boavista course, Eamon O'Sullivan, playing off a 16 handicap, and Matt Geaney (16) donned masks and sombreros, before recording superlative scores of 43 points and 41 respectively. Quite what the 71-year-old senior statesmen of the team, Peter Gibney (21), made of his 40 points being the discard can not be recorded in print.

The event was far from a foregone conclusion, as the Roganstown Ravers, as the team would affectionately be known, highlighted over the Morgado course. Frances Arthurs (16), Alison Farnan (27) and Jenny Crowley (25) - with all three scores to count - amassed a whopping 120 points, broken down to 41, 36 and 43 respectively.

There has as yet been no mention of the Ulster champions, Rockmount, and the triumvirate of Alan McClune, Stephen Morwood and Pat McGalie. It doesn't demean their golf to endorse their candidacy as the trip's social heavyweights.

Going into the final day's format, where there was one score to count on the first six holes, two on the next six and finally all three members of the team are asked to contribute over the final six holes, Fermoy led by just five points over Roganstown.

The Cork club never blinked over the championship layout at Penina, while the ladies challenge melted in brilliant sunshine, eventually pipped for second place by the hard-charging Roscommon.

Every club had lived the prize, but it was Fermoy who realised their quest for success.

Final results: 1. Fermoy (P Gibney, M Geaney, E O'Sullivan) 368 points; 2. Roscommon (Frank Grehan, Francie Grehan, B Claffey) 349 pts; 3. Roganstown (F Arthurs, A Farnan, J Conway) 343 pts; 4. Rockmount (A McClune, S Morwood, P McGalie) 314 pts.