Paul Dunne sees off spirited Brian Casey challenge to land East of Ireland title

Nothing comes too easy, not when one of the most coveted titles on the Irish amateur circuit is at stake. And, if Paul Dunne had a couple of nervy moments en route, the 20-year-old Greystones golfer – a finance undergraduate at the University of Alabama – finally reached his desired destination in capturing the East of Ireland championship at sunny Baltray yesterday where a final round 73 for 282, six-under-par, gave him a one stroke winning margin over a defiant Brian Casey.

Dunne and Casey were the only two players to finish with sub-par totals. Yet, the surprise, to some extent, was that it went to the death. For much of a long day’s work, Dunne seemed in control of his own destiny only to leave the door ajar for Casey who, to his credit, kept the pressure on his opponent until the final putt dropped on the 72nd hole.

Despite an interrupted night’s sleep due to music from a party in the clubhouse, Dunne maintained his focus.

In the morning's third round, he shot a 72 to Casey's 70 which reduced his lead from four to two shots. The damage had come on the Par 5 18th, where Dunne drove into a bush which resulted in a lost ball.

Curtailed the damage
Although he curtailed the damage to a bogey six, Casey's birdie there resulted in a two shot swing.

The mindset going into the final round was to, as he put it, “control what I could control and make the best score I could on every hole.”

And that’s how it started out, as he went par-birdie-birdie to open up a four stroke lead on Casey. Then, around the turn and into the back nine, he lost control.

“(It was) strange, I either hacked my way up the holes or flushed my way up them,” he later remarked.

Indeed, having three-putted the ninth green for a bogey to turn three up, he sank a 10-footer to save par on the 10th and then went on a run of bogey-birdie-bogey-birdie.

That birdie on the 14th, where he played a wonderful pitch from 72 yards in to two feet, restored his three-shot advantage. And when Casey's tee shot on the 16th found a fairway bunker and he clipped the lip with his recovery in running up a bogey, it looked as if it was all over bar the shouting. Four up with two to play.

Very interesting
But it got very interesting thereafter. Dunne attempted to smother his six-iron tee-shot to the 207 yards Par 3 17th only to turn it over. "I was thinking, 'the only place you can't hit it is left' and once you have that thought in your head the only place it is going is left."

His error was compounded when he then put his second shot in the greenside bunker and ran up a double-bogey five. His lead was down to two.

After his morning’s travails on the18th hole, Dunne played it safe and hit iron off the tee and then laid-up before safely finding the green in three and two-putting for the par which was sufficient to get him home to Casey’s closing birdie.

Dunne will seek to bring the momentum on to next week’s Irish Close in Connemara and the upcoming British Amateur championship.