Moriarty goes on birdie blitz

Standing on the 14th tee, Colm Moriarty led the Friends First Mullingar Scratch Cup by two shots from the overnight leader, Noel Fox. Four birdies on the front nine - Fox was one over for the same stretch of holes - had propelled the Athlone golfer to 14 under par for the tournament: the original pursuer was now being pursued.

The pressure should have been a little suffocating but Moriarty's response to the onus of leading the tournament was little short of staggering. He birdied each of the last five holes to obliterate the opposition, amassing a 19-under-par total over three rounds to which the tournament was reduced because of torrential rain yesterday morning.

The organisers decided to cancel the 18 holes in the morning, instead opting for a lunchtime shotgun start, reducing the Mullingar Scratch Cup to 54 holes. Moriarty had started the day three shots behind Fox on 10 under par, largely due to the Portmarnock golfer's sensational 12 under the card, 60 in Sunday afternoon's second round.

Before teeing off yesterday, he focused on trying to get to 16 under, a mark he considered good enough to win the tournament. He surpassed his ambitions with a nine birdie, bogey free, 63. "I felt that it would be tough for Foxy, after shooting a 60. I thought 16 under would be good enough. I felt very relaxed out there. I know the boys well, it was great fun." The 22-year-old, who won the Munster Youths Championship in 1998, and the Athlone Scratch Cup earlier this year, partially attributed his success to a change in clubs, switching from Callaway to Mizuno irons. He retained the Callaway ERC 11 driver that he had first used in the Murphy's Irish Open at Fota Island where he played all four rounds.

"The Mizunos gave me a greater feel," he explained, a point illustrated to great effect by his wonderful touch around the greens. Moriarty conceded that he loves the strokeplay format: he calculated that his strokeplay average for the season up to and including the Murphy's Irish Open was 71.8 before going on to describe his matchplay record as "brutal".

Seven weeks spent at the Legacy Golf Club in South Florida in January and February this year - he travelled with Gavin McNeill and Padraig Dooley - along with tuition from Brendan McDaid and national coach Howard Bennett had helped to develop the Connacht interprovincial's game.

A lesson from the putting guru Harold Swash at Royal Lytham - he was leading Irishman in the Lytham Trophy - was hugely beneficial.

Moriarty was four under for the front nine, holing from 20 feet at the first, hitting the hole with a pitch at the fourth and pitching dead at the sixth and ninth. Fox's woes on the front nine largely stemmed from his inability to negotiate the two par threes adequately on the way out, registering double bogeys on the second and fifth. He was stymied by a tree on the first occasion and on the fifth took four to get down from a bunker.

Three of Moriarty's closing five birdies were as the result of exquisite wedge play, the other two can be ascribed to 10 and 15 foot putts at the 15th and 17th respectively. He finished five shots clear of Fox.

The Athlone golfer will play for Connacht in the interprovincials at Killarney next week, before heading for the European Amateur Individual Championships in Odense, Denmark, potentially the Home Internationals if selected and then he intends to head for PQ1 and the arduous route to a European tour card.

Scratch Cup: How they finished:

197 - C Moriarty (Athlone) 68 66 63.

202 - N Fox (Portmarnock) 71 60 71.

208 - M Campbell (U.C.D./Stackstown) 73 67 68, G Bohill (Co. Louth) 71 69 68.

209 - S Browne (Hermitage) 68 66 75, J Foster (Ballyclare) 67 68 74.

210 - J Morris (Mullingar) 68 69 73.

211 - R Kilpatrick (Banbridge) 70 69 72, T Rice (Limerick) 65 78 68.

212 - S McTernan (Co. Sligo) 71 69 72, N Goulding (Portmarnock) 70 72 70, E O'Sullivan (Island) 69 68 75.

213 - D Morgan (Mullingar) 70 72 71, D Kelleher (Portmarnock) 69 69 75.

214 - P Dooley (Cork) 70 68 76, D Sugrue (Killarney) 69 75 70, P Wallace (Mullingar) 68 72 74.

215 - A Morris (Belvoir Park) 73 68 74, P McDonald (Woodbrook) 70 72 73, G Hall (Edenderry) 70 71 74.

216 - S Irving (Howth) 70 71 75, A Morrow (Portmarnock) 69 71 76.

217 - J Mulready (Castle) 74 73 70, G Cullen (Beaverstown) 73 70 74, G McNeill (Waterford) 72 72 73, A Dowling (Hermitage) 72 70 75, N Gorey (Killeen) 71 71 75.

218 - J McGinn (Greenore) 75 69 74, M McDermott (Stackstown) 74 66 78, G Massey (Hermitage) 72 70 76.

219 - R Leonard (Banbridge) 76 70 73, M Rowe (Athlone) 73 75 71, M Barrett (Mitchelstown) 73 73 73, B Hobson (Shandon Park) 72 71 76.

220 - R Flood (Hermitage) 75 73 72, R De Lacy Staunton (Hong Kong) 73 72 75, J Lyons (Birr) 72 74 74.

221 - P Byrne (Sutton) 77 70 74, C Conaty (Ashbourne) 73 73 75, M Brett (Portmarnock) 73 71 77.

223 - C Cunningham (Mullingar) 73 71 79, R Elliot (Royal Portrush) 72 74 77.

224 - M Staunton (Ballinasloe) 77 71 76, C Cassidy (Portmarnock) 72 74 78.

225 - B McCarthy (Spanish Federation) 75 73 77, F O'Donoghue (Belvoir Park) 73 75 77.

226 - O Barton (Ballinasoe) 73 73 80.

NR - D O'Sullivan (Limerick) 81.

Retired: M Horan (Birr), R Cannon (Balbriggan) 74, P Errity (Delgany) 72 74, C Donovan (Killeen) 71 75, R Fitzgerald (Tramore) 73 75, J Mitchell (Tramore) 75 70.