Liz makes history by winning second national pitch and putt title

Liz Quinn from Collinstown Pitch and Putt Club created history last weekend by becoming the first Westmeath lady to win a second National Pitch and Putt Championship.

Liz played superbly all weekend to win this year’s National Matchplay in the Douglas course in Cork city. The last Westmeath lady to win this was the legendary Rose McCormack (RIP) from Kilbeggan back in 1996. Liz’s win last weekend coupled with her National Strokeplay title from 2020 makes her arguably the greatest ever Westmeath lady player.

Last weekend’s journey began on Sunday with a difficult draw against the very talented Margaret Keogh from the Ryston club in Kildare. Liz put her stamp of authority on this match early on, by taking a three-hole lead after the opening six holes. But Margaret settled into the match and played some very solid Pitch and Putt for the remainder of the first round.

After 18 holes, the lead remained at three holes. Liz never relinquished control of the match throughout the second round and eventually closed out the match by a 3&2 margin to move through to the quarter-final.

The quarter-final match was against a local Cork player, Nicola Ahern from the Collins club. Nicola had a very impressive opening round win by a margin of 12&10, so this opponent was not to be taken lightly. Once again though Liz came out of the blocks quickly establishing an early lead and like in her opening match, Liz had a three-hole lead over Nicola after the opening 18 holes.

Liz quickly turned this into a five-hole lead after the opening six holes of the second round and in reality, was never going to lose from there. Liz closed out victory by an 8&7 margin to reach her second semi-final in successive years.

And so, on to Monday morning and the semi-finals. The weather had dried up for the first time all weekend and the sun even made an appearance. Liz’s opponent on Sunday morning in the semi-final was one of the true legends of the game and multiple National Champion, Marian Courtney. Marian had already knocked out her sister, the reigning champion, Chrissie Sheedy in the opening round and was the bookies favourite to go on and win the title.

Liz knew that anything less than her ‘A’ game would not suffice in this match. And so, as she had done in both matches on the day before, Liz came out of the traps playing superbly right from the first shot.

A truly incredible start to the semi-final saw Liz lead by five holes after the opening seven holes had been played. Liz was never to relinquish her grip on the match and eventually closed out victory by a 6&5 margin. The Mullingar woman had reached her first ever National Matchplay final!

Liz’s opponent in the final was a Cork woman, Sarah McGrath from Fermoy. Sarah was also making her first appearance in the final, so the cup was going to have a new name on it regardless this year.

Sarah may have been aware of Liz’s tendency to take an early lead in her previous matches, and she was determined not to allow this in the final.

Liz did lead by a single hole in the early part of the opening round but after 18 holes, she found herself behind in a match for the first time all weekend. That deficit became two holes in the early part of the second round and the Westmeath woman was looking vulnerable for the first time.

However, an incredible run from the eighth hole to the 12th hole of five wins in a row for Liz saw the match turn on its head. Liz was suddenly three up with six holes to go.

Sarah tried her best to make a comeback as she had in her semi-final match, but Liz refused to relinquish her lead and eventually closed out the match on second last hole by a 2&1 margin.

The woman from Mullingar had done it. After playing the game since being a juvenile over 40 years ago, Liz had finally won what many consider the biggest title of them all – the National Matchplay Championship.

Liz’s clubmates in Collinstown and her many pitch and putt friends in Westmeath and across the country have extended the heartiest congratulations to her on a historic win.