John Doyle (Fota Island) and Caoimhe O’Grady (Royal Dublin) are the Irish Boys’ and Girls’ Close Champions after an exciting final day at Monkstown Golf Club.
In the Boys’ event, Doyle made his way to the final after a 3&2 win over Mark Gazi (Tralee) in the morning. He had a tough match against Massereene’s Noah Bickerstaff, but he pulled away in the last few holes to claim the title on the 17th hole with a 3&1 win.
This was the Cork teenagers first time in the Irish Boys’ Close final, and he was delighted to get the win after a long week of golf.
“It feels great. I’ve played a lot of golf over the last four days, six rounds, so I’m pretty happy to be resting for the next few days so ya, happy enough,” said Doyle.
The Fota Island Golfer was playing close to home this week and the extra few practice rounds that he was able to get in paid off.
“It was great, it was in unbelievable condition, given the rain and the wind the last few days. It’s been great and they’ve been a great host to all of us so thanks very much to them.”
Local support helped Doyle to get over the line, as he knew he was up against tough competition in Bickerstaff.
“Ya, it was great that all the lads came out from Fota, it definitely helped me today against Noah. He’s a very tough competitor and well done to him also.”
In the Girls’ competition, Caoimhe O’Grady got her maiden girls’ title after beating Katie Poots (Knock) 1up in the final.
It was a tough road to the final for O’Grady as she had a lot of tight matches this week which included a 1up win this morning over Olivia Costello (Roscommon) and a win against her sister Niamh in the first round on the 20th hole.
The Meath teenager was delighted to get over the line and claim her first win at Monkstown.
“It feels amazing. I’ve been playing championships since I was 11 or 12 so to finally win one especially it be the Irish Girls is just amazing so ya, I’m so thankful and grateful.
“The course is in great condition, the greens are tricky, but they are in such great condition. Fairways are good, everything is really good, so the standard of the course was really nice which helped the golf as well,” said O’Grady.
Steady golf was the key to O’Grady’s success this week in a season that has been jam packed so far for the Royal Dublin golfer.
“I played well, I played steady in the qualifying just tried to make the cut and then in match play I played well. My first match was my sister and that was a tight one but other than that I was pretty steady. Me and Katie had a good match today.”
“There is a lot of tournaments bunched together so it’s go, go, go, but it’s nice to have this in the middle of it.”
Due to severe rainfall at Monkstown yesterday, the Plate championship matches were cancelled and the remaining eight golfers in the Boys’ and Girls’ competed over 18 holes of stroke play today.
Ella Cantwell (Esker Hills) won the Irish Girls’ Close Plate title with a score of +5 after beating Lucy Grattan (Tralee) in a play-off.
In the Boys’ Plate final, Charlie Mooney (Ballinasloe) won with a score of Level Par after beating Sam Allister (Belvoir Park) and Dylan Holmes (Greystones) in a play-off.
Leave a comment