The 9th playing of the Triangular match between OSGB, OSI and OSNI took place at the Balmoral Golf Club in Belfast on Friday 30th Sept.
Seven players made the trip this year with high hopes of bringing the trophy back to Southampton.

Five players met at Southampton airport early on Thursday having entrusted their clubs to Simon Bevan the day before to drive them up via Telford (and Crusher's house) to Birkenhead and the Belfast ferry.

On Thursday afternoon there was a practise round on the Balmoral Course to get use to the conditions etc. The weather was kind with overcast skies and relatively dry underfoot. The main issue seemed to be the extensive sanding of the fairways that had taken place a few days earlier. This made the judgement of distances very difficult because of the lack of run on the ball. A few pints of Guinness were consumed over the Thursday evening's team talk and confidence was growing.

After a hearty breakfast on Friday morning we caught the bus to the Golf Club and renewed acquaintances with old friends from both sides of the border. The weather forecast was not good and it wasn't long before the rain started. Those of you who have been to Ireland will know that their rain seems different from ours, it doesn't seem that dark and always seems to be clearing up but never does - and this was exactly the case on that Friday. The real galling thing was that we knew very well that England was enjoying the ongoing autumn heat wave whilst we were getting soaked.

So a miserable day was being made even more miserable by poor scoring coming from our team. When we finally got back in to the club house and the totals were added up (top 4 in each team to count) it proved a close run thing with OSNI just beating OSI by 3 point (115 - 112) with OSGB coming 3rd (can't quite remember our score!). In the 9 years of playing this competition this was the first time that the NI team had won the trophy and given the year that Northern Ireland golf professionals have had, that trend had continued in this match as well.

Needless to say we recovered from the disappointment quickly enough to sample more Guinness that evening and after another good breakfast, the odd glimpse of the England Rugby match we got the plane back to Southampton (pity the ferry return crossing was delayed by some 6 hours or so).

Next year the match is over here so I would like to encourage as many of you as possible to lend a hand to regain the trophy for OSGB.