Peter O’Keeffe (Douglas) and Aideen Walsh (Lahinch) were crowned Irish Mid-Amateur champions at the end of a gruelling third round at Tipperary Golf Club.
Between them, these players have won five Mid-Am titles and it was a sixth Irish crown for O’Keeffe while for Walsh this win paves the way for another appearance at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open in Carton House this week.
O’Keeffe won the best overall gross score too while he also picked up the Irish Mid-Amateur Men’s Over-40s crown.
However, it was Walsh who landed the first silverware of the day when she got the better of Shannon Burke (Ballinrobe) after an intense battle. They played together in the final group and while Burke drew level early in the round, Walsh’s experience proved vital.
Walsh played her first Senior Cup here in 2017, and the Bridgestone Order of Merit leader, who got the better of Emma O’Driscoll in a similar battle last year in Portsalon, backed up her earlier rounds of 72 and 71.
Walsh and Burke both birdied the 12th but when Burke bogeyed 13 it left the door open for the reigning champion to ease her way to another sweet victory on +3.
“Today was a bit of a roller-coaster but I am happy I kept it together because I bogeyed the first two holes,” said the 26-year-old.
“I used this week to prepare for next week so it’s very exciting. I have a bit to work on from this week. It’s always good to have a few things to focus on. It’s great to have so many Irish playing as well, I can’t wait to see how everyone gets on.
“I’ve had a really strong season, I’m very happy with where my game is at, so it’s definitely good for the confidence. But I do understand that it’s a professional event so I’ll keep that all in perspective.”
This win also meant a lot to O’Keeffe, the 42-year-old battled hard and it was Muskerry’s Brian Lane who provided the biggest obstacle earlier in the day before Pat Murray (Tramore) rallied.
O’Keeffe had three birdies on the front nine and when he followed that up with one on 12, he was in pole position. He did suffer his third bogey of the day on 16 but he got that back with a 20-foot putt on the last for a -4 total.
“I’m very happy with that, I’ve had no form whatsoever for the bones of 12 months. This was a big week for personally just to get something back out of golf,” said O’Keeffe.
“I have an affinity to winning Irish titles and a young fella who’s into golf so matter how big or small it means a huge amount to me. I was trying very very hard this week to win this one.
“I worked on a lot of great stuff with my coach, Noel Fox, just bouncing stuff off him. He was on holidays and I was sending him videos all the time. It didn’t feel great out there but I knew I was functioning well which is the main thing.”
View the final scoring here