Extra toil pays off for Smith at last

Irish Women's Close Final: So, this was the promised land for which Deirdre Smith had been searching on an idyllic Saturday afternoon.

With the sound of pipe music from the festival in Malahide Castle wafting across the estuary to the sun-kissed links of The Island Golf Club, the 34-year-old - who had spent countless hours on the driving range and years on the course in pursuit of a national title - finally fulfilled her ambition when defeating teenager Tara Delaney in the final of the Lancome Irish Women's Close championship.

"Everything I've worked on, all that hard work of the past six to eight years, has paid off," remarked Smith, who beat the 18-year-old Carlow player - who will join her sister Karen on a golf scholarship to Kent State in Ohio later this year - on the 20th hole of a marathon final that took over five hours to complete.

In many ways, Smith's win was a vindication of her own belief. After making the Irish team in 1999 and 2000, she subsequently lost her place, and when she failed to reclaim it last year, despite some impressive form, the physical education teacher at the St Louis Convent in Dundalk was "hurt, but it made me more determined to prove myself".

Over the winter, much of Smith's time was taken up re-evaluating what she wanted from golf. "I worked out why I started to play the game in the first place and I decided that, whether I win or lose, I would enjoy it. I believe that over the past couple of years I was actually trying too hard and that I needed to get the right balance," she explained.

From February on, she worked harder than ever on her game, with coach Bobby Browne and with the backing of friends like Pay Hoye, owner of the Dundalk Driving Ranger, who caddied for her in the final, and Charlie Monahan, who had carried her bag in earlier rounds.

"There were times I felt I was going nowhere and people like Bobby and Pat and Charlie were the ones who encouraged me."

Certainly, in this championship, Smith proved her worth as she took the scalps of Curtis Cup player Claire Coughlan in the semi-final, having already beaten Tricia Mangan, a reserve for that match in Formby next month.

And, then, in the final itself, she accounted for Delaney - who had included a hole-in-one albatross on the 13th in her semi-final win over Deirdre Walsh - a player who is very much part of the future of golf in this country.

The final was a real battle, with much of the really good golf played over the front nine - which Smith covered in one-under to be one up - before the tension of the occasion understandably influenced play. Indeed, from the ninth, which Delaney won, only one of the next seven holes was halved as neither player could take control.

Yet, Smith never trailed. Two up with four to play, though, Delaney finally rediscovered some of the form she had displayed in reaching the decider: She won the 16th in par, after Smith failed to get up and down when her tee-shot failed to find the green, and then took the 18th where her 35-foot eagle putt grazed the hole but a birdie was sufficient to win.

On the first tie hole, Smith played an extraordinary approach shot from heavy rough - "I had to hit an eight-iron for a 70-yard shot, which explains how deeply the ball was buried," she later explained - and saved her par, with Delaney's birdie putt resting on the lip of the hole.

Then, on the 20th, she holed a 15-footer for a winning par. "I'd been playing well in the early part of the season and I knew something like this was waiting to happen," insisted Smith.

RESULTS - Semi-finals: T Delaney (Carlow) bt D Walsh (Milltown) 5 and 4; D Smith (Co Louth) bt C Coughlan (Cork) 3 and 2. Final: Smith by Delaney at 20th.