IRELAND’S hopes of having their first Amateur Champion since Brian McElhinney five years ago were dashed at Muirfield yesterday when Paul Cutler fell by the wayside in the quarter-finals.

PAUL CUTLER, the Portstewart golfer who reached the British Amateur Championship quarter-finals at Muirfield yesterday before going down to the South Korean, Jin Jeong, won’t need to contest the weekend’s 36-hole qualifying procedure for the Golfsure Irish Close Championship at Royal Dublin.

PAUL CUTLER is keeping Irish hopes alive in the 115th British Amateur Championship at Muirfield.