Moriarty a major player

JUST AS Ernie Els will tell you he has "a little guy" on his shoulder spouting negative thoughts, perhaps Colm Moriarty - who yesterday won the Irish Shell-sponsored South of Ireland Amateur Championship at the first sudden-death hole in a play-off with Sean McTernan - will believe he has someone, possibly with divine intervention, looking over him.

Less than a week ago, Moriarty, from Athlone, was involved in a road accident involving four cars and, indeed, it was something of a miracle that he was able to walk away from it. He did, however, suffer some strain to his back, and the 23-year-old Irish international worried he might not be fit enough to compete in the South. Some physiotherapy treatment, though, and anti-inflammatory tablets combined to help him compete, and a measure of his recovery was that he claimed his first "major" title, beating McTernan at the 19th in what was his seventh match in four days.

After his car crash, which occurred on the way back from a GUI national squad session in Doonbeg, a friend of his, obviously with a tabloid bent and some prophetic powers, told him that the headlines from Lahinch will scream something along the lines of "Moriarty Cheats Death!" as he went on to win the title. And win the title he most certainly did, even if he required the break that most players need somewhere along the way.

It occurred at the first play-off hole when, after getting a flyer out of the wispy rough, his ball looked as if it would soar over the green. Instead, it struck a spectator in the huge gallery at the back and bounced back towards the putting surface, enabling him to make the two-putt for par that was sufficient to give him a long-awaited win.

Moriarty, a plus-four handicapper, had in some sense under-achieved in past championships. His only previous success also came on the Old Course when he won the Munster Youths' in 1998 - ironically enough, winning in a play-off against Danny Sugrue - but he consistently features among the leading players in strokeplay qualifying and, earlier this season, finished runner-up in the Brabazon Trophy, the English Open strokeplay championship.

Yesterday, however, his moment finally arrived. But he had to win the hard way. In the morning semi-finals, Moriarty had accounted for Mark Ryan, while McTernan, a student at the University of Toledo, ended the remarkable run of 56-year-old Barry Reddan in rather comprehensive fashion.

On a dry if overcast afternoon, with the northerly wind making for testing conditions, Moriarty and McTernan engaged in a real battle of attrition, with the initiative swinging wildly. The lead changed hands five times, and, while the newly toughened and lengthened course made scoring difficult, with each player completing 18 holes in three-over 75s, there were also some superb shots that would have done credit to any championship.

Moriarty had turned one-up, but appeared to be on a slippery slope as he bogeyed the first three holes coming back. He lost the 10th and 11th holes to go one-down - but the bogey on the 12th, salvaged after putting his drive into the "mine" on the right, gave him an unlikely half. McTernan, from the fairway, had put his approach into a bunker and, from there, into another trap.

If that halved hole brought some relief, it was nothing to compare with the 14th. After putting his drive into a pot bunker on the right of the fairway, Moriarty could only splash out and, with McTernan again in the middle of the fairway, the odds were heavily against him halving the hole, let alone winning it.

But he played a superb approach and holed the 20-footer for par, and then watched as McTernan three-putted from just off the green. They were all-square again.

Moriarty won the 15th in par, after McTernan was bunkered, but the battle continued. On the 17th, McTernan bravely and coolly holed a 20-footer for birdie to level matters.

The 18th was shared in birdies - with McTernan's 15-foot eagle putt shaving the hole - and so it was that Moriarty finally achieved his ambition of winning one of the big championships when his par on the first play-off hole was sufficient.

"I knew when I came here that I had a chance, because it is a real striker's course. It's a course that took a lot of people out of the equation," said Moriarty.

Although it seems inevitable that Moriarty will move into the professional ranks, he has yet to put a time on the transition. In fact, his immediate goals are to make the Britain and Ireland team for the St Andrews Trophy match with the Continent of Europe in Switzerland - that team will be announced next week - and the three-man Ireland team for the Eisenhower Trophy, the world amateur team championship.