Brendan Lawlor cruised to a nine-stroke victory in the second staging of the ISPS HANDA G4D @ The West, held in conjunction with the Connolly Motor Group West of Ireland Championship, at County Sligo Golf Club.
A superb one-over 72 on testing conditions on day one handed him a commanding lead going into the second and final round in what proved to be considerably the tougher of the two days.
“Yeah, it’s great to be back playing in County Sligo, one of the best courses I think I’ve ever played, even though the weather’s very tricky, it’s hard to get the ball around.
“But any disability events in Ireland I can play. I have all the family out this week, so it’s great that they can come out and watch and it was a joy.”
Lawlor pushed County Sligo’s own Alan Gaynor into second place – a repeat of last year’s one-two – but despite the healthy lead he enjoyed, he was far from certain of securing his victory until the final hole.
“Yeah, to be honest, I played pretty solid today,” he said. “The score mightn’t show it, but the conditions out there were pretty rough, probably 60, 70 mile an hour gusts at stages, but, I knew I had a good lead from yesterday.
“So it’s kind of a matchplay situation between me and Alan today and I get up a few shots early on, so I just tried to maintain that coming in.
“And I’ve done a good job of that and my temperament is very good this week. This is a course here where you can get pretty angry if things aren’t going your way and you can really derail. Even though I had a good lead coming in, I was like, I still need to play golf here because if Alan pars home and I have a train wreck coming in, anything can happen.”
Gaynor was second in the gross stroke play while Caolan Munnelly (Tullamore) completed the top three.
Mark Clougherty took home the net stroke play title after rounds of 75 and 74 were enough for the Lambeg golfer to finish two shots clear of Paul Kelly (County Armagh).
Jarlath King (Ballinrobe) won the net stableford crown after he accumulated a total of 69 points. Declan Burns (Foyle) was second on 64 points with Timmy Moloney (Co Tipperary) three points further back.
“I love links golf and I don’t play much links golf to be honest but when I get out here there’s something about it,” said Lawlor.
“I am quite a feel player, so I love feeling those type of shots, six irons from 120 yards, all these different type of shots around links are really joyful to play.
“It was an absolute battle out there, trying to keep the ball under the wind was pretty tough. I played very solid. I had a sweet buffer coming in and it was kind of a match play situation between me and Alan today.
“So, I’m really happy with the win.”
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