WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL FOUR-BALL

IT’S A LONG WAY FROM TIPPERARY TO
FLORIDA … BUT WORTH IT FOR MARION!

Marion Riordan, 23-year-old Ireland international player from Tipperary,
met Mary Ann Plunkett from Locanto, Florida for the first time only three weeks ago.
On Friday, they cemented their new-found friendship by winning the 59th Women’s International Four-Ball Championship at Orangebrook Country Club, Hollywood in Florida.
Marion gained a degree from University College, Dublin before Christmas and then turned her thoughts to golf. What better way to warm up for the 2005 season, when she hopes to regain the Ireland team place she last held in 2002, by competing on the Florida Orange Blossom Tour for women amateurs in January?
Miss Riordan finished 10th in the opening event, the Harder Hall Invitational at Harder Hall Country Club, Sebring and it was there that she met fellow competitor Mary Ann Plunkett. They hit it off right away and decided to team up for the four-ball championship, the last event on the Orange Blossom Tour.
And it was success all the way this week. Marion and Mary Ann have really been Hollywood stars! They were the leading qualifiers by a four-stroke margin … they did not have to play the 17th and 18th holes at all and the 16th only once in winning the three ties that took them to the prestigious title won last year by two of the most famous names in North American women’s amateur golf over the past few decades, Carol Semple Thomson and Marlene Streit from Canada.
In Friday’s final Marion Riordan and Mary Ann Plunkett won by 4 and 3 over local player, Ronnie Hall from Hollywood, Florida and Melissa Pucciarelli (Argentina).