Irish PGA Championship: David Mortimer's motto is never give up and it earned him the €140,000 Sherry Fitzgerald PGA Irish Championship title from under the noses of Robert Giles and John Dwyer at Druid's Heath yesterday.
Mortimer galloped past Giles and Dwyer, who disputed the lead for most of the day, with a birdie-par-birdie finish to snatch the silverware and the winner's €20,000 cheque by one stroke in the centenary year of the championship.
His closing one-under-70 for a total of two-over-286 sends him to the Tour School in a week's time in jubilant mood.
"I think Leslie Walker is a good omen for me," he reflected. "I played with Leslie at the Tour School two years ago when I won Stage One and I played with him today, as well. It's a pity that I won't be paired with him at St Anne's next week. This is my second 72-holes tournament win."
Mortimer (31) led after the first and second rounds but dropped down the leaderboard on Saturday as he took five shots over regulation (76) to get around.
"Really I played better on Saturday, apart from three silly mistakes, than today," he remarked.
"This is a course that anything can happen on. It can eat you up so even though, for a time, it looked as if the title was between Robert and John I just kept plugging away and it came right in the end. It is a great entry to my golf career as I passed my final exams just last December."
Yorkshire man Giles (Greenore) went into the final day's play as leader by three strokes from five players, including Dwyer and Mortimer.
Dwyer cut the margin to two by the turn but on the back nine the fireworks began. Giles dropped three shots between the 11th and 15th holes while Dwyer picked up a birdie at 11 to be joint leader. It was really matchplay between the pair in the last two-ball with Mortimer up front not making much headway.
But things changed dramatically. Bad swings at 16 and 17 cost Dwyer two bogeys and he joined Giles at three-over for the tournament.
Mortimer rolled in a 16-footer for birdie on the 16th green to tie the lead with Dwyer and at the last steered a nine iron to eight feet for birdie three, his fourth birdie of the round but the most important one.
Neither Dwyer nor Giles could manage a birdie at the last to force a play-off as Mortimer was busy getting in some practice in case a shoot-out was necessary.
"I play with these boys week in and week out so I knew I had as good a chance as anyone of taking the title. The fact the European Tour players were missing takes nothing from the victory. A win is a win," said the new 31-year-old champion who played interprovincial golf with Connacht for 10 years before joining the paid game four years ago.
Royal County Down's Simon Thornton, who was in touching distance during the afternoon, finished fourth with a closing 73 while Ardee assistant Bryan Smith was the leading trainee. Eamon Darcy, who finished 10 shots behind the winner, took the seniors' prize.
Score of the day yesterday was a five-birdie 68 by Barrie Trainor, the Bray assistant from Warrenpoint. That equalled the best round of the tournament but only took Trainor to 296, like Darcy, 10 shots adrift.
