McGinley retains his title

Irish PGA ChampionshipDubliner Paul McGinley became the first player to retain the title for 17 years when he chiselled out a five-shot win in the Smurfit Irish Professional Championship at Adare Manor yesterday.

A level par final round of 72, played in constant driving rain, gave him an eight-under-par total and his fourth success in this championship from his last seven starts.

Kilkenny's Gary Murphy started the day five shots adrift and although he fell seven strokes behind after seven holes, he fought back on the back nine to reduce the deficit to three shots with two holes to play. He finished where he started after signing for a level par 72, victim of a double bogey seven at the last where he drove into the River Maigue.

In the end he can have no complaints as McGinley drew deeply on 12 years of professional experience to card two birdies, two bogeys and 14 pars in testing conditions and pick up a cheque for €20,000.

After sharing the first four holes in par, McGinley stretched his lead to six shots at the fifth where he hit a mighty drive and then drilled an eight iron to within three feet of the cup. Once McGinley birdied the short 11th he had simply to avoid making silly mistakes and although he bogeyed the par-five 12th and three-putted the 14th, Murphy's failure to convert a series of birdie putts - at the ninth, 12th and 15th - proved to be his undoing.

Having carved out a five-shot lead with a superb 69 in windy conditions on Saturday, McGinley stuck to his game plan yesterday. His watchword was caution: "I had a five-shot lead today and I was able to play golf accordingly. I played golf to win but I didn't play as aggressively as I played yesterday. I didn't take many chances. In the end I played to run out of holes as a soccer team or a Gaelic team might play to run out the last 10 minutes."

His only major mistake came at the 550-yard par-five 12th where he carded a bogey six that could have proved to be even more expensive. Six ahead of Murphy standing on the tee, his solid drive left him with 252 yards to go to the pin. But in attempting an ambitious draw with a three-wood around a stand of trees that was blocking his view of the green, he blocked it 30 yards right into the bushes and could only hack the ball back into play.

Murphy was not too disappointed to pick up €13,000 but his lack of consistency on the greens cost him dearly: "To be brutally honest I struggled the whole week with my swing until the back nine. But for two days I didn't convert anything at all on the greens," he said. "It was just heart-breaking out there. If I had putted solid I could have been in double figures under par easily. But Paul is too good a player to give any charity at all."

Belfast's Michael Hoey finished third on one under after a level par 72 that could have been at least one shot better. On the fringe of the eighth green, he marked his ball to allow playing partner Brendan McGovern to chip up but inadvertently held the ball in the palm of his hand and penalised himself a stroke for illegally cleaning it.

"It was a silly mistake," he said. "My caddie Alastair McKinley noticed I hadn't held it between my thumb and forefinger. But I was happy with my score and I'm looking forward to the Northern Ireland Masters at Clandeboye next week."