‘Career’ amateurs rule the roost

FOR a pleasant change, all four South of Ireland semi-finalists at Lahinch this morning are career amateurs, men who work during the day and play golf in their spare time.

So a growing trend for these events to be dominated by young men in their teens and early 20s who play golf full-time has been reversed, at least for the time being. The first match at 8.30 this morning involves the 30-year-old Robert Cannon from Laytown & Bettystown and Eamonn Haugh, 43, of Castletroy.

They will be followed a quarter of an hour later by Gary O’Flaherty, a 34-year-old from Cork Golf Club, and Limerick’s Irish Close champion Pat Murray, who celebrated his 38th birthday last Friday

The latter clash promises to be especially intriguing given that the two men are the closest of friends and O’Flaherty was best man at Murray’s wedding. When they met in the quarter-finals two years ago, Murray played some of the best golf of his career to win comfortably and both insist that their friendship won’t be a factor once the action commences.

“The first time it was a bit strange but you quickly get into the zone”, said O’Flaherty, a view shared by Murray who joked that “it means he will give me less” before adding that “there will be a little bit of banter and friendly chat but then you’d be talking to whoever you’re playing against”.

That was even the case yesterday afternoon when Murray came up against Lee Valley’s Sean Barry, with whom he frequently plays practice rounds. It looked as if the more experienced Murray would run away with the match when he winning the first three holes but Barry quickly settled and the margin was down to one at the turn.

Murray moved two ahead again at the 10th when Barry carved his drive into jungle country to the right of the fairway but by now the Lee Valley man was revelling in the cut and thrust and it was level pegging after he claimed the 11th and 13th. That’s how it remained until the Limerick Golf Club secretary/manager took the 16th and 17th in solid pars for a 2 and 1 win.

Although admitting to “bitter disappointment” after his controversial omission from the Irish European Championship team after his victory in the Close last month, Murray stressed that he isn’t in Lahinch to prove anything to anyone.

Instead he pointed out that he’s been chasing the “South” title for the past 20 years and that it would mean a huge amount to him if he could add the country’s oldest provincial championship to the Munster Mid-Amateur and Munster Stroke Play trophies already adorning his sideboard.

Gary O’Flaherty, the sales manager for Wilson Sports, has reached the Lahinch semi-finals for the first time and attributes his success so far to “driving really well and hitting a lot of greens”.

He cruised into a four-hole lead at the turn against Joe Lyons, the Galway man who reached the final in 2005 only to lose to Jim Carvill. As he admitted, though, “it’s very hard to keep your swing and concentration in such a strong wind” and Lyons was back in the hunt when he birdied he 11th and 14th , the latter with a 50-foot putt.

The finish, however, came at the 16th where O’Flaherty knocked a five iron from the elevated tee through the crosswind to ten feet and Lyons three-putted. A first major championship victory would sit very nicely with the Corkman who marries Yvonne Manning next December.

Eamonn Haugh has been playing the “South” for the past 18 years and between himself and caddie Tommy Greene, they know the Lahinch links like the backs of their hands. Haugh went into the championship on a high after beating Pat Murray in an Irish Senior Cup match last week and says he is benefiting enormously from the help he has been receiving from former Walker Cup star Arthur Pierse whom he described as his “swing coach”.

Haugh has been a great competitor over the years. He was a member of the Castletroy team that won the Jimmy Bruen Shield in 1986 and six years later helped the club to capture the Irish Senior Cup.

“Reaching the semi-final of the South, our local championship if you like, is massive for me,” he said after his exciting one-hole quarter-final defeat of Mallow’s David Finn.

It was a desperately tight affair all the way and produced the two best shots of the day at the 13th, the short par four playing into the teeth of the strong wind. Finn’s low, punched approach bounced beside the flag and stopped stone dead. Not to be outdone, Haugh produced an almost identical shot and with the same result, much to the delight of the gallery.

That left the match still all square but the Castletroy man went ahead at the 14th and clung on to his one hole advantage to the end. Haugh has yet to represent Munster but that situation will assuredly be rectified when the team for Douglas next month is chosen today.

He now comes up against Robert Cannon, a former Leinster interpro who has battled injury and illness to reach his first championship semi-final. Lahinch captain Austin Slattery’s wife, Dr Aine, was consulted on Monday when Cannon felt so sick that he considered withdrawing from the championship, but her advice worked the oracle and he was a different man yesterday when accounting for Michael Brett and Gavin O’Connor in impressive fashion.