McCabe and Walker start 2019 with wins at Portmarnock Links
Leslie Walker (Dundalk Golf Club) during the 2017 Titleist & Footjoy PGA Professional Championship - Irish Qualifier at Luttrellstown Castle. Photo by Patrick Bolger/Getty Images
Home player AJ McCabe won the nett with a super 69 as Dundalk professional Leslie Walker carded a level par 71 to win the gross in the first TaylorMade Winter Series outing of 2019 at Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links.
A former British Boys champion, Walker defied the northerly breeze as he recovered from early bogeys at the first and fourth with birdies the 10th and 14th to edge out Lucan's Mick Downes and Newlands' Cameron Raymond for the top gross prize.
McCabe, who plays off one, had the best score of the day as a 78-strong field took to the links, carding a 69 nett (70 gross) to edge out St Anne's Shaun Watts, who had a 70 off three, by a stroke.
Out in one-under following an excellent front nine featuring a tap-in birdie after a stellar 191-yard approach into the breeze at the seventh, McCabe came home in level par as his birdie at the 13th was cancelled out by a closing bogey.
Laytown and Bettystown's Dan Hughes was third in the nett with a 70 as he followed a bogey on the first with a birdie at the second, then came home in one-over with a birdie on the 12th and bogeys on the 15th and 16th holes.
Walker had to fight hard to win the gross prize but he proved the steadier of the three players to card 71s.
Lucan man Downes went out in two-under-par with birdies at the second, fourth and ninth holes and a solitary bogey at the fifth before bouncing back from a double bogey at the 10th with birdies the 13th and 14th holes.
Another costly double bogey on the 15th hole proved costly and while he birdied the 16th and then pared his way home for a level par round, he had to settle for the second gross prize.
It was a similar tale for Europro Tour regular Raymond, who went out in two-under-par with birdies at the par-five fourth and sixth.
He then followed a bogey at the 10th with a birdie on the 13th but needing two pars for overall victory, he finished bogey-bogey instead for a level par 71 and finished third.
Each player will receive a complimentary sleeve of TaylorMade TP5x golf balls at next week's January 8 outing.
TaylorMade Winter Series, Portmarnock Hotel & Golf Links (Par 71, SSS 75, CSS 75), January 1
Nett
1, AJ McCabe (1) The Links Portmarnock 69
2, Shaun Watts (3) St Anne's GC 70
3, Dan Hughes (2) Laytown & Bettystown GC 70
Gross
1, Leslie Walker (Pro) Dundalk GC 71
2, Mick Downes (1) Lucan GC 71
3, Cameron Raymond (Pro) TMG Sports 71
