Colm Moriarty scooped a cool £4,000 after a final round 68 saw him climb into third place at the PGA Professional Championship in Sherwood Forest Golf Club.
The Glasson Lakehouse professional carded four birdies and one bogey as he finished seven shots behind runaway winner Paul Hendriksen who stormed to his second title having won the championship in 2015.
Hendriksen took the lead at Sherwood Forest in the second round and managed to maintain his position thanks to rounds of 68, 66, 72 and 67, finishing six shots ahead of runner-up Cort. The win will secure Hendriksen a spot in the 2024 PGA Play-Offs at Aphrodite Hills Resort, alongside Cort.
“I think this proves winning the first one wasn’t a fluke,” joked Hendriksen. “That’s what I’m most happy about at the moment. It doesn’t feel like eight years ago!
“I think this was probably a more solid performance compared to 2015 and it was nice being able to walk down the final holes with a big lead, rather than a small (one shot) lead eight years ago. There was a lot less and pressure and that was a nice feeling coming down the last knowing I just had to get the tee shot in play, hit the green and it was tough to lose it from there.”
Despite starting the final round two-shots ahead, Hendriksen remained attacking and three early birdies on holes 5, 7 and 8 meant he just couldn’t be caught by Cort who put up an impressive title defence.
Hendriksen added: “Matt (Cort) is probably one of the best players who competes in PGA tournaments. He caught me yesterday towards the end of the day so I was getting a little worried because I know how good he is, so I had to have my have my ‘A game’ and I brought that today and that was the only way I could beat him.
“This week has been really tough. The heat you can manage, we’re all used to playing in that, but the course was firm, and fast with lots of rough, so you had plot your way around the course and hit good shots. If you hit bad shots, you were going to get punished. I felt it was a fair golf course, but you really had to stand up and hit the shots.”
Richard Kilpatrick was the next best of the Irish contingent on three-over after a one-over 72 while Sean O’Donoghue suffered a tough final round as he slumped to a six-over 77 for a four-over total.
Scoring HERE
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