The green Dart hurtled along the railway line as Kate Dillon – her yardage book sticking out of her back pocket with the words FORKS UP visible to one and all – pulled out a pitching wedge from her bag to play the par 3 17th hole at Woodbrook Golf Club with her foursomes match slipping away.But Dillon’s tee shot had everyone holding their breath, not least her playing partner Katie Poots and those of her English opponents Patience Rhodes and Sophia Fullbrook. When the ball landed, it was so close to being a hole-in-one that those spectators gathered around the green ooohed and aaahed in expectation for a split second.The ball didn’t drop into the tin cup, however it settled a matter of inches away and the concession from the English pairing meant the match was all-square which it remained through the 18th for a halved-point apiece in the R&A Home Internationals. It ensured the head-to-head would continue into the afternoon singles with the Hugh C Kelly Trophy and the International Shield the prize up for grabs for the women.Kate Dillon at Woodbrook during the Home International. Photograph: Tom O'Hanlon/Inpho That halved point was further augmented by a win for Emma Fleming and Anna Abom so that the two teams finished that alternate shot phase tied at 1½ to 1½ with the six singles to determine the final outcome for the women’s, while – tantalisingly – the R&A Trophy, the trophy for the combined women and men’s championship, too remained very much all to play for.The staging of the Home Internationals at Woodbrook in the famed Co Wicklow club’s centenary year brought with it a true throwback to golf at its most pure, with spectators following behind players down fairways or on the parched rough where, in the past, Irish golfing legends like Christy O’Connor snr (who won four Carrolls Internationals) and Christy O’Connor jnr (who won the revived Irish Open in 1975) had walked in search of their own glory.The evolution of the amateur game was especially evident from those women in the top foursomes match, all of them familiar with each other from collegiate golf in the United States. That FORKS UP saying is a nod to Arizona State’s mascot, Sparky the Sun Devil, where the university’s fans shape their hand to mimic a pitchfork.Both Dillon and Rhodes attend University State, while Poots is at Indiana University and Fulbrook is at Florida State. And the mix of colleges applied too those men competing in these Home Internationals where Ireland and England emerged as the main protagonists on the third and final day of competition for the silverware on offer: The R&A Trophy for the combined, the Raymond Trophy for the men and the Hugh C Kelly Trophy and International Shield for the women.And as the shadows grew longer in the evening, the destinations of those pieces of silverware – which had been on display in the clubhouse throughout – were decided. England took both the men’s and the women’s trophies, but not the main one, the R&A Trophy for the combined championship.Gavin O’Neill and Thomas Higgins at Woodbrook during the Home Internationals. Photograph: Tom O'Hanlon/Inpho That, almost incredibly, went Ireland’s way after a momentum swing on the homeward stretch of holes.Although Ireland’s women lost out to England by 5½ to 3½, Ireland – who last month won the European Men’s Team Championship – rediscovered the winning feeling down the stretch with a 5½ to 2½ win in the singles against England for an 8-4 overall score in the men’s. It combined with the women’s result to give Ireland an 11½ to 9½ win over England to lift the R&A Trophy (Ireland had beaten Scotland, halved with Wales and beaten England for a total of two-and-a-half match points to England’s two).Ireland’s winners in the men’s singles were Thomas Higgins (by 3 and 1 over Max Hopkins), David Howard (by 3 and 2 over Ed Featherstone), Fionn Dobbin (by 3 and 2 over Jenson Bull), Keith Egan (by 3 and 2 over Jamie Van Wyk) and Dylan Keating (by 4 and 3 over Lewy Hayward). John Doyle halved his match with Harley Smith.And as one after another of those late matches finished out on the 16th green, the pieces all fell together for Ireland to claim the R&A Trophy in the combined championship; providing a fitting conclusion to a wonderfully staged Home Internationals at Woodbrook.