A terrific final day saw Ireland move up eight places and finish in the top-20 of the Eisenhower Trophy in Le Golf National.
A superb four-under round from Mark Power coupled with a gutsy one-under effort from Robert Moran helped the Boys in Green finish in 19th place on eight-under-par.
Friday’s star Matt McClean had a sour finish to his final round, as three closing bogeys gave him a round of 75 and his score was not counted.
Kilkenny’s Power can come away pleased with his individual performances as a final round 68 saw him move into the top-25 of the individual leaderboard on six-under-par.
The Wake Forest student dropped a shot on the second but got it back on the third before a hat trick of birdies on the fifth, sixth and seventh set the tone for the day.
The 22-year-old added a fourth birdie in five holes on the ninth before he endured a sticky back nine where he had to battle hard to keep his round going.
Bogeys on twelve and fourteen were cancelled out by birdies on 13 and 15 and he finished with three successive pars for his third under par round of the week.
Power who reached the match play at last month’s US Amateur Championship finished eleven shots behind eventual winner Tobias Jonsson of Sweden who took advantage of Taiga Semikawa’s collapse to pip him to the title on seventeen-under.
The Swede shot a 66 while Semikawa stumbled to a 73 after a closing bogey on 18.
It was Italy who claimed the team Eisenhower Trophy with a 31-under total.
Niall MacSweeney can be proud of how his charges performed in France this week with everybody contributing and Castle’s Rob Moran carded fifteen pars on his way to a battle hardened 70.
The Dubliner dropped a shot on the fourth but recovered with birdies on nine and ten before coming home with eight successive pars.
In the end, Moran and McClean finished the week alongside eachother in 76th place on five-over.
Scoring HERE
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