Murphy finishes with a flourish
EOGHAN Murphy’s excellent season continued last week when he finished third in the Irish Under-16 Boys Amateur Open Championship at Clonmel.
After a poor start, when he shot a four over par 75 in the first round, Murphy turned on the style over the final two rounds of the 54 hole event and was one of only two players in the field to compile two rounds in the sixties over the course of the competition.
Unfortunately, Murphy’s charge up the leaderboard wasn’t enough to catch winner John Brady (Rosslare) and runner-up Mark Power (Kilkenny), but he was one of only three players to finish under par and after winning the Faldo Series and the Munster Boys Championship as well as a Leinster cap there is plenty for Murphy to be proud of.
Josh Mackin, Sean Laverty and Padraig Fallon also took part in the Championship but failed to make the cut for the third and final round.
Caolan Rafferty reached the last 16 of the Irish Amateur Close Championship at Ballyliffin last week before having his run ended by leading qualifier John Ross Galbraith (Whitehead) who eventually finished as runner-up to Alex Gleeson from the Castle club.
Rafferty had qualified for the matchplay stage in joint 13th place after rounds of 72 and 77 while club colleague Aaron Grant just made the top 64 after rounds of 80 and 75.
Grant exited in the first round of matchplay but not without a heroic fight as he took New Ross’s Michael Ryan to the 20th hole.
Rafferty had a 4&3 win over Anthony McDaid of Palmerstown Stud before beating Tandragee’s William Small 3&1 in the next round for a place in the last 16 where he lost 3&2 to Galbraith.