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By Charlie Mulqueen
Caolan Rafferty put aside his disappointment and did a bit of history with a 20th green win over Rowan Lester, at the final of yesterday's 117th World Championship. Southern Ireland, Lahinch
. Rafferty became Dundalk's first member to win a senior championship trophy and sailed for a spot in the three-man Irish team for the Eisenhower Trophy, to compete in the World Amateur. Championship, at Carton House, next month.
There was sympathy for Lester, 22, who lost a second "South" final in three years.
Rafferty took a slow start, losing the long second to a birdie-oven and the fifth ran to a peer, but he insisted that it was not caused by nerves, but rather in choosing the wrong lines on the impeccable greens, having been extremely impressive in this regard in his semi-final defeat of Mark Power. 19659003] The next par three, the eighth, was playing straight into the cool breeze and Rafferty narrowed the gap, thanks to a superb tee shot, and was back in terms with a birdie-four to the 12th.
Rafferty went from the front for the first time with a sweet par win to the 13th, but Lester was back to normal with a par in the 15th, where the Dundalk player overtook the green with his second
what he described as "my worst race of the match", in a bunker, to leave a behind in the 17th, before the two play the 18th in contrast, but brilliantly.
Lester hit the green with one drive and three of iron at less than 20 feet, 534 yards par five, while the Hermitage needed a magical corner approach for his third, which returned to three feet.
But he missed the birdie for a half, an error that was going to prove fatal, while Rafferty claimed a hole and a match with an 18-foot-birdie, at the second tie hole, even though it was not. 39, he drove into a tee bunker
"I'm hitting and kicking in this winning championship gate for longer than I can remember," said Rafferty, whose younger brother, Eoin Murphy, also from Dundalk GC, has just been chosen on the Irish Boys.
"I showed how much I wanted it over these last holes, even though I was sincerely sorry for Rowan for missing that putt on the 18th, after such an approach. " another chance and I was determined to take it. My 209-yard four-iron, in the 20th, was a crucial shot, after catching the tee's bunker.
"I can not tell you how much that means, especially with my father, Ciaran, among the gallery, as well as some other Dundalk members, too."
The morning semifinals, which promised Lester took a quick lead against Forrest Little's Jack McDonnell, and returned home in the 16th, while Rafferty proved the most stable of the two in his clash with Mark Power. , who made some mistakes that cost him dearly and he succumbed to the 14.
The home province's challenge vanished Saturday, with defeats for defending champion James Sugrue (Mallow), who lost 4 and 3 at McDonnell, for Cork's GC pair, John Hickey and Garry O 'Flaherty, and for Peter O' Keeper, Douglas.
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