Stuart Grehan declared winner as weather hits ‘East’

Tullamore’s Stuart Grehan was declared the winner after torrential rain and southerly winds forecast to gust over 100kph saw the CityNorth Hotel sponsored East of Ireland Amateur Open reduced to 54 holes for the first time in its 75-year history.

The 22-year old midlander finished five strokes better than Knock’s Colin Fairweather and six ahead of Castle’s Alex Gleeson on four under par 212 after following rounds of 67 and 69 with a 76 in heavy rain and high winds at County Louth yesterday.

Since Joe Carr won the inaugural “East” in 1941, the champion has always completed 72 holes on the famous Baltray links. But in explaining why the decision was taken to cancel round four with the entire field on the course and reduce the tournament to 54 holes, Leinster Golf’s Joe McNamara, the championship director, said: “The weather was only going to get increasingly worse so we made a decision to cancel the round rather than prolong the agony.