British Amateur Championship: Brian McElhinney admitted to nerves so bad before the final of the British Amateur championship he could hardly eat or sleep.

But overcoming them to beat Scot John Gallagher five and four at Royal Birkdale on Saturday has opened a host of doors for the 22-year-old from Co Donegal.

The first Republic of Ireland golfer to take the title since the late, great Joe Carr in 1960 - Carr's third victory - McElhinney can now add to his diary the British Open championship at St Andrews next month and the Masters at Augusta in April.

He should soon be able to write in the Walker Cup in Chicago in August as well. The team which will try to defeat the Americans for an unbelievable fourth time in a row is named in four weeks' time.

"It's just thinking about it more than anything," said McElhinney on his pre-match tension. "I couldn't eat properly and I must have had about three hours' sleep on and off.

"Once I was playing I was much better."

And once he was playing, he did it much better than former greenkeeper Gallagher, a 24-year-old whose cross-handed grip, left hand below right, brings looks of amazement.

"It's hard to believe somebody could be that good swinging like that," said McElhinney. "When I told some of my mates about it on the phone they thought I was taking the p***."

Gallagher, though, has always done it that way and since he has a plus-two handicap he is clearly a far more talented golfer than he showed in the final.

Even allowing for the windy conditions, to be an approximate 16 over par for the 32 holes was a bitter disappointment to him and his following.

"I just ran out of gas at the end, but it was a brilliant week," said Gallagher, now hoping to be capped by his country for the first time.

McElhinney is the Irish champion and a former European champion, so the quality of his game was already known. Solid without being spectacular, he will hope to do better on the Old Course than he did at Royal Troon last year. His European victory brought him an British Open debut then, but he bowed out after two rounds of 76.

The Masters will be a whole new experience, of course, especially after a first half of the season in which he had done "absolutely nothing".