Caolan Rafferty: 'It was just one of those days where anything I looked at was going to go in'

A former winner of the ‘West’ and the ‘South’, Rafferty made no secret of the fact that the ‘East’ was the title he craved most and after coming second in 2022 and 2023, he exuded a sense of relief.

SUPERB WIN:Dundalk’s Caolan Rafferty put two years of heartbreak behind him when he married a deft putting touch with some brilliant iron play and closed with a superb seven-under 65 to claim the Kingspan-sponsored East of Ireland Championship at County Louth. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Dundalk’s Caolan Rafferty put two years of heartbreak behind him when he married a deft putting touch with some brilliant iron play and closed with a superb seven-under 65 to claim the Kingspan-sponsored East of Ireland Championship at County Louth.

Second in 2022 and beaten in a playoff last year, he feared the worst when he three-putted the 18th for a bogey that left him just one ahead of Royal Dublin’s Max Kennedy on 15-under-par.