Jenkinson putts his way to victory in Newcastle West

Shane Jenkinson shot a superb six-under 65 to win the Newcastle West Pro-Am at Newcastle West Golf Club.

The Island GC professional won by the minimum from Ballyneety’s Gavin Young on a day of seriously low scoring where eleven players broke par including nine rounds in the 60s.

Jenkinson, playing the course for the first time, found it to his taste with seven birdies and just one bogey on the third on his way to his first victory of the season.

The Dubliner got off to the ideal start with an opening birdie before dropping one on the 3^rd. Three successive birdies before the turn kickstarted his round and he continued his momentum with three birdies in five holes on the back nine.

Birdies on the 12th, 14^th and 16^th saw him home in 32 for the win.

Jenkinson has been performing well this season with three top-7 finishes on the bounce but he feels the difference on Saturday was on the greens and he hailed his putting performance.

“Yeah it’s a good win. Played steady holed a few putts, poked it around hit it stone dead a couple of times held a few par putts, birdied the par fives and held a long putt or two and that was it.

“I was up in Carne last week and if there was a bucket in the hole I wouldn’t have held it. Been hitting it solid but if I putt well I can put myself up there so I was very solid.

“I had a B&B booked the night before but I was too tired to drive down so I came down in the morning and walked a few holes and watched lads hitting balls into the greens and they were bouncing ten feet in the air so my plan was to hit front edges all day and let the ball run up.

“If you hit some fringes the ball could run through the back, getting up and down was so hard with the greens sloping back to front and the conditions being firm.

“I played with a member so it was about remembering that for the approaches and leaving you in good positions to make putts.”

Glenlo’s Brian O’Reilly too third with a four-under 67 while Colm Moriarty and Liam Grehan rounded off the top five on three-under after rounds of 69.

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