Amateur Scene Season review: The question is a simple one. How do you surpass someone like Rory McIlroy? What do you do to exceed the achievements of someone who creates history by becoming the youngest ever winner of the Irish Close, which, at 16 years of age, is what McIlroy did this season?

The answer? Capture the oldest and toughest championship of them all, which is what the unassuming Brian McElhinney did when he held his nerve to beat Scotland's John Gallagher by 5 and 4 in the final of the British Amateur Championship at Royal Birkdale in June, joining a select group of Irishmen who have won this most prestigious trophy in amateur golf.

So consumed by nerves was McElhinney the night before the final that he later admitted to having no more than three hours of sleep "on and off", and could not eat properly. "Once I was playing, I was much better," he recalled.

And, in the final, the Donegal player - who later in the season would win an Irish Senior Cup with his club North West - dominated against the Scot, who played with an unusual cross-hand grip, and proved his pedigree.

Just two years ago, McElhinney won the European Amateur strokeplay title. If it seemed as if he had scaled the amateur heights at that time, the British Amateur success showed that there are always other goals to achieve.

Indeed, one of the rewards for McElhinney's win was that he has secured an invitation to play in next year's US Masters at Augusta National where, traditionally, the Amateur champion gets to stay in the Crow's Nest in the golf club.

In any other year, the achievements of two other Ulster amateurs would have been considered astonishing. McIlroy, the precocious teenager from Holywood Golf Club, signalled his season's intentions by winning the West of Ireland at Rosses Point, and followed that by winning the Irish Close at Westport. And Jim Carvill, a former tour professional reinstated as an amateur, won the East of Ireland and the South of Ireland titles.

Not to be outdone, Tara Delaney proved there is exceptional talent emerging from the women's ranks in Ireland when the Carlow teenager successfully defended the Irish Ladies Strokeplay championship at Hermitage, while Vagliano Trophy player Tricia Mangan proved victorious in the Irish Ladies Close at Portsalon.