Limerick youngster Cian McNamara won the Junior Open title at Royal Musselburgh, just a few miles up the coast from Muirfield, yesterday with a conservative final round 71 to add to his 65 and 71 in the second and opening rounds respectively for a three round total of 207, three under par.
McNamara, who won last year's Irish under-15 title, turned 16 only two weeks ago, and yet he played with the calm assurance of a veteran in a difficult final round where he was paired with his closest rivals for the biggest prize in junior golf.
Holding a three-shot lead over Danish youngster Peter Meldgaard, and six ahead of leading girl Da-Sol Chung of South Korea, McNamara kept the Dane at bay until the 13th when he dropped a shot both to par and to the 16-year-old from Jutland to give his rival hope.
However, the Irishman steadied the ship with a par at the short 14th, before Meldgaard's round came apart on the long 15th.
With McNamara's drive dissecting the fairway, the young Dane hooked badly into trees. He tried to play out from an impossible lie, perhaps inexperience getting the better of him, and ended up having to take a penalty drop. He finished the hole with a nine to the Irishman's regulation four. Game over.
In fact, it was the talented Ms Chung who ran McNamara closest in the end, finishing just three shots behind the Limerick golfer, who punched the air with delight as his par putt went in on the 18th green.
It was an important victory for McNamara, not just because of the prestige of the tournament, but because the youngster had lost out on his previous two tournaments, the Leinster Boys, in which he was second, and the Ulster Boys championship, where he lost out in the semi-final on the second extra hole.
"It's ironic that I win the biggest of the three," said the delighted Munsterman, adding: "I just knew that if I went out there and played my own game, and kept errors to a minimum, I would come out on top, and so it proved."
Asked about the six-shot swing between his course record-equalling 65 on Tuesday and yesterday's one-over-par 71, McNamara said: "I putted very well in the second round, and made some important saves, and the 65 was the foundation for the victory, but then I was playing a bit more conservatively in the final round and did enough to win.
"This is the biggest win of my golfing life so far, and I'll be enjoying it for a few days, but you need to build on these things rather than dwell on them."
McNamara was accompanied throughout by his father, Dermot, a 14-handicap golfer, and by GUI president Jack Lynch, another Limerick member, as well as GUI secretary Seamus Smith.
McNamara will be spending the next two days at Muirfield soaking up the big-time atmosphere and watching his tip for an Irish double, Padraig Harrington, before heading off to Germany next week for the Junior Masters as Junior Open champion.
And he hopes to be back in Scotland, representing Ireland in the Home International series at Blairgowrie from August 6th-8th, but, as the modest youngster said, "Only if I am selected."
It would be a brave Irish selector to leave the Junior Open champion out of next month's line-up.
