John Murphy birdied five of his final 11 holes, including the 18th, to earn himself a playoff berth at the Clutch Pro Tour’s Crondon Park Classic, and he held his nerve
The Kinsale man began the final round three behind, in solo third place, and in the final group as the field went out in a shotgun start due to weather delays on the previous day and the second round only being completed on Thursday morning.
An opening bogey was not the start he was looking for, and when he dropped another shot on the fifth, it looked as though his chances of victory were slipping through his fingers as he fell five shots behind.
But a birdie on the eighth kickstarted his round into gear, and he reeled off three in a row to storm back up the leaderboard before an untimely weather delay again forced the field back to the clubhouse.
The previous day, he’d just eagled the third – his 12th – to hit the front when play was halted and he bogeyed three of the remaining six when play resumed. On this occasion, he refused to let the stoppage get to him and he added another birdie on 12 to draw within one of the lead.
“It was funny because when the squall came after that eagle and we were back in the clubhouse, I was trying to stay away from leaderboards but everybody was telling me how great I was doing, so that killed the momentum a little bit,” he said. “Then in the final round I’d just birdied three in a row and hit it to eight feet on the par-3 11th when the hailstones came and we got called in. I was joking that the golfing gods really don’t want me to get hot. Both times I got a little bit unlucky, but I still never felt I was out of it at any stage, even when I was four or five back.”
With scoring proving difficult for the other leaders, pars were enough to get him to the 18th tee still just one adrift and a birdie got him into a three-way playoff with Englishmen OJ Farrell and Ben Hutchinson.
He’s not a leaderboard watcher – it’s something he and mental coach Ed Coughlan have made a conscious decision to avoid – but there are times when it’s unavoidable and this was one of those.
“I stood up on the final tee at Heythrop Park in the first event of the year [and found he needed to eagle the par-5 to get in a playoff] and I felt as though I didn’t handle that situation as well as I would have liked. I stood up on the 18th again this time, facing a very uncomfortable tee shot, and to pull driver with the confidence that I did and hit the tee shot that I did after checking the position that I was in, it felt really nice to be in that environment and execute the way I did.
“I didn’t hit the greatest shot into the green, but I was able to get up and down for birdie. I actually thought it was to get into a two-way playoff – I didn’t realise that OJ Farrell had finished with a birdie to make it a three-way – so that lessened the chances a little, but I pulled the number one card in the playoff and that first tee shot is very intimidating but I hit a beautiful one and the two lads didn’t hit really bad shots, they just pushed them into the trees a little which is so easily done and had to chip out and made bogey. They’d actually putted out by the time I hit my 25-foot birdie putt, so I knew I had two putts to win.
“But it was an uncomfortable enough 25-footer up the hill and then an uncomfortable two-footer for the win, but I’m thankful that I stayed really strong on the task throughout the playoff and the final round and managed to get the win.”
“It feels amazing to be back in the winner’s circle, very fulfilling. There’s been a lot of difficult days in between my last win and this one to say the least, but I’m very thankful that I went through everything that I’ve gone through, learned so much about myself, the game, and life really, and this isn’t because of the win or the trophy, it’s more because I feel comfortable on the golf course again as a result of all the work that I’ve been doing. So I’m very thankful for all the people around me that have helped me get to this point.”
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John Ross Galbraith closed out with a three-under 69 to move into a tie for fifth, while Robert Brazill’s level-par 72 saw him finish T37 at +4 and Daniel Mulligan took two strokes more in the final round and shared 46th at +6.
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