After winning his home club’s Scratch Cup back in May, Robbie Walsh took the honours at the Lee Valley Scratch Cup, winning it for the second time after first claiming glory in 2023.
The Douglas man was slow out of the blocks in the first round in the brutally testing conditions on Saturday morning, carding a six-over 78 in a round where only Warrenpoint’s Colm Campbell managed to break par and shoot 71.
Walsh’s 74 in the afternoon pushed him up the leaderboard, but he still trailed Lee Valley’s own, Ben Murray by nine shots going into the final round and Charleville’s Jordan Boles by eight.
The conditions for Sunday’s final round were markedly better, but even still, just five of the 32 players to make the cut shot rounds in red figures and nobody went lower than Walsh, whose 68 was the low round of the day by two and his closing birdie on 18 was enough to give him the clubhouse lead and would see him finish tied with Murray and one ahead of Warrenpoint duo Campbell and Rian Carville, and Boles.
Over a four-hole aggregate playoff, Walsh outlasted the home favourite, once again getting his hands on a trophy that was also the final one Shane Lowry hoisted in his glittering amateur career before turning professional.
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