West of Ireland Championship: Paul McDonald owes a debt of gratitude to his father, Joe, one he could repay by claiming the Standard Life-sponsored West of Ireland Amateur Open Championship at Rosses Point.
It was Joe who enrolled a 14-year-old Paul as a member of Woodbrook Golf Club, expressly against the teenager's wishes.
"I thought golf was a game for old men and had no interest. I was playing soccer at that stage."
McDonald was soon captivated: in little over four years he was playing off scratch, and was selected on the Ireland Boys and Ireland Youths teams.
A former winner of the Waterford Scratch Cup, his studies took him to UCD, where he was a member of their All-Ireland Barton Shield-winning team. Now, three years into his degree in Landscape Horticulture, McDonald is on a three-month placement at Elm Park Golf Club.
The recent break from college life has allowed him more time to practice, which has shown in his play this week. Yesterday morning he threw in an eagle and four birdies on his way to a 2 and 1 win over Raymond Williams of Baltinglass.
Then, in the afternoon quarter-finals, he teed it up against current Ireland international Johnny Foster of Ballyclare, and despite going two down after eight, refused to buckle. By the 15th he was just one down, and the match swung decisively there.
McDonald was in trouble off the tee, hacked out sideways and could only find the green in three with Foster there in regulation. The Dubliner putted up to about four feet while Foster rolled an exquisite putt to about 20 inches.
McDonald admitted: "Johnny said to me that 'These greens are getting bumpy', and so after I holed mine I decided to ask him to hole out. If it had been earlier in the match I would have conceded his putt."
Foster watched in horror as the putt grazed the hole, slipped four feet past and he then missed the return to hand McDonald an unlikely win.
The match was all square and it remained that way until the 17th when McDonald's bogey was good enough to claim the hole. Foster had a chance to take the match into tie holes, but his 16-foot putt on the home green came up agonisingly short.
In this morning's semi-finals McDonald faces Sweden's Oskar Henningsson, who in the morning beat compatriot Jonas Blixt on the 20th when he holed a 30-yard bunker shot, and then edged past Conor Doran of Banbridge at the 21st.
In today's other semi-final, Castletroy's Stephen Moloney will square off against Greg Bowden of the Hermitage. Moloney yesterday ended the fairytale run of 14-year-old Rory McIlroy of Holywood by 3 and 2 in the morning, before recording a relatively comfortable 5 and 4 win over Eoin O'Sullivan of The Island in the quarter-finals.
Bowden beat Portmarnock's Declan Kelleher at the 20th in the morning, and then dispatched the new course record holder at Co Sligo, Sweden's Rikard Karlberg, by 2 holes in a tense tussle.
