FORGET all this talk about global warming - the weather must have been a lot kinder 20 or 30 years ago. Otherwise it would be difficult to explain the general level of scoring when Sean Quinlivan captured the AIB East of Ireland Championship yesterday with an aggregate of 303 - 11 over par.

The 22-year-old Munster-interprovincial from Ballybunion had a two-stroke margin over former champion Garth McGimpsey at Baltray. But the more dramatic development on another day of mean winds was the collapse of overnight leader Stuart Paul, who was six strokes clear entering the final round.

US golf-course architect Pete Dye takes the view that the only way to throw a scare into professionals is with wind and water. On yesterday's evidence, wind alone would seem to be sufficient to leave category one amateurs transfixed, given that the winning total was the highest since 1953.

Norman Drew had taken the title on 306 in 1952 and Jimmy Carroll was successful on 303 a year later. The last time the winner failed to break 300, however, was in 1975 when Adrian Morrow triumphed on that figure in high winds and hail showers.

On this occasion, a wild, score-wrecking wind made conditions quite chilly on the more exposed areas of the links, despite the ever-present sunshine. It also made the going decidedly slow, with rounds in excess of four and a half hours, even with two-balls in operation for the final 36 holes.

But Quinlivan wasn't complaining. "It was a huge thing for me, having the experience of playing Ballybunion in this sort of wind," he said after a final round of 77. "To be honest, it came as a great relief to discover that my birdie on the last was more than enough - I thought I needed an eagle there to get into a play-off."

For his part, Paul was understandably shattered to have followed three rounds of 75 or better with a crushing 86. "I didn't feel I was hitting the ball any differently this afternoon but it just didn't happen for me," he said. "After the 13th, I was really gone."

This 421-yard par four, playing directly into the north-east wind effectively decided the destination of the title. It had all looked very different after a particularly difficult morning in which Paul's best-of-the-round 75 left him one over par for the championship.

At that stage, Quinlivan was his closest challenger on seven over, followed by Ken Kearney on nine-over while the holder, Noel Fox, was on 10-over along with Paddy Gribben and McGimpsey. In a start of double-bogey, bogey to his final round, Paul was quickly under pressure but he held on to be three strokes clear at the turn.

Playing in the two-ball ahead of the leader, Quinlivan then struck telling blows early on the homeward journey. With a glorious two-iron second shot of 170 yards at the 12th, he set up a birdie from five feet. Then came a solid par at the next, followed by a birdie at the 14th, where he drove the green downwind.

By that stage, Paul's chance had gone. From a pushed drive at the 13th, his ball finished in an unplayable lie in a depression in the rough, but with nowhere to drop he hacked it forward a few feet. He then came up short of the green in three and proceeded to pitch and three-putt for a wretched, triple-bogey seven.

So, from being one ahead of Quinlivan on the 13th tee, he was now two behind and set to go further adrift. And all the while, the seemingly modest clubhouse lead of 13-over-par by McGimpsey, was assuming greater significance.

Ultimately, however, Quinlivan would have had to finish disastrously not to take the title. As it happened, indifferent approach play led to bogeys at the 15th 16th and 17th but he finished impressively. An eight-iron second shot, downwind, was through the green at the 541-yard 18th, but Quinlivan pitched to four feet and sank the putt for a closing birdie.

It represented a remarkable breakthrough for a player who never did better than the top 15 here on four previous challenges. But Quinlivan was a proven winner, having captured the Munster Boys in 1990 and the Connacht Youths a year later. He then went to the University of Central Florida on scholarship but returned home after three years, at Christmas 1995.

In different circumstances, the winner of the East could have counted on a place in Ireland's six-man team for the European Amateur Championship at Portmarnock later this month. But Quinlivan will have to give the selectors further proof of his talent in the Irish Open Strokeplay at Fota Island next week, after which the team will be finalised.