Ireland suffered a dramatic and heartbreaking defeat in the semi-finals of the European Amateur Team Championship at Killarney Golf & Fishing Club this afternoon.
Having not featured in the final since 2014, the Irish had taken a 2-0 lead after the morning foursomes but their Danish counterparts bounced back in the singles.
Despite another brilliant point from John Doyle (Fota Island), Ireland came out on the wrong side of an agonising 4-3 scoreline, with Kristian Hjort Bressum draining the winning putt on the 20th hole of his match against Thomas Higgins (Roscommon).
“Brilliant all week, very proud of them, very proud of the performance. They gave it a real go today,” said Ireland Captain Damien Coyne.
“We got off to a great start and gave ourselves every opportunity. We just got done by some really, really good golf on behalf of the Danish guys, and especially in Thomas’ match, to finish with four straight birdies. He had six really good putts in the last six holes of the match, which is very impressive.
“I'm sure it’ll sting this one, for an hour or so, but once we've mentioned that we’re playing England in the morning, the lads will have no difficulty in getting themselves up for that, and we’ll be ready to go again, and it’s just try our best to get something out of the week and get a medal would be really, really good.”
Stuart Grehan (County Louth) and Caolan Rafferty (Dundalk) secured the first point of the morning foursomes with a 3&1 win over Mads Heller and Mads Viemose Larsen. Doyle’s 35-foot putt on 18 wrapped up a 2-hole win for him and Matt McClean (Malone) over Hjort Bressum and Oscar Valdemar Holm Bredkjaer.
Doyle sealed another precious point in the afternoon singles but the Danes came roaring back, with Heller and Holm Bredkjaer winning their matches against Grehan and Gavin Tiernan (County Louth) respectively. Andreas Trym Dam Fogth defeated McClean and then Hjort Bressum got the better of Higgins when he rolled in his putt on the 20th hole.
It was a really tough match. The Irish guys are a really good team and we are sorry to beat them on home soil. They were really strong in the morning, in the foursomes, they won the two first matches,” said Denmark Captain, Peter Jespersen.
“After the foursomes they (Denmark) were not too happy. They thought it would be a really tough afternoon but we had to remember we only played for two points in the morning out of seven, so we still had five points out in the afternoon.
“It was important we got some points in the beginning because of course we were underdogs after the morning so it was really important that we got two points fairly quick but still it was the last match on hole 20, that made the difference.”
The win earns Denmark their place in the decider alongside Italy, who shocked England in the other semi-final in Flight A.
The morning foursomes were halved before Italy took control in the singles with Riccardo Fantinelli, Giovanni Binaghi, Biagio Andrea Gagliardi and Filippo Ponzano all winning their matches. That was enough for a big 5.5 to 1.5 win for the Italians.
Ireland will face England for the bronze medal tomorrow with Finland and Sweden up against each other and France and Germany facing off in the remaining Flight A tie on Saturday.
Switzerland and Netherlands will play for the Flight B honours, with Poland up against Spain, Estonia against Iceland and Czech Republic taking on Portugal.
View the scoring here
