Cool McGrane joins Murphy on Euro Tour

THEY say there is no greater pressure in golf than the end of season Tour Schools and Wexford club professional Damien McGrane came face to face with that reality at the Emporda course in northern Spain yesterday.

He arrived at the long 18th at the European School knowing that anything worse than a par five would knock him out of the top 35 players who would win cards on the main circuit for 2003. With the wind howling and the rain beginning to fall it was far from an easy proposition.

“I hit a drive and five iron that left me with a nice pitching wedge to the green”, he revealed. “It came up about a yard short and from there I chipped to three feet. I knew this was deadly serious. I had seen other guys falling apart on this very hole where every second player seemed to be taking six. I don’t mind telling you that I was sweating like hell but somehow I got the ball into the hole”.