Amateur golfBrian KeoghThe Amateur Championship, Portmarnock Golf Club, James Sugrue, Euan Walker

Sugrue takes three up lead in Amateur final

Amateur golfBrian KeoghThe Amateur Championship, Portmarnock Golf Club, James Sugrue, Euan Walker
Sugrue takes three up lead in Amateur final
Mallow’s James Sugrue and Kilmarnock Barassie’s Euan Walker before the start of the final of The Amateur Championship at Portmarnock. Picture: Pat Cashman

Mallow’s James Sugrue and Kilmarnock Barassie’s Euan Walker before the start of the final of The Amateur Championship at Portmarnock. Picture: Pat Cashman

Mallow's James Sugrue will take a 3-up lead into the second 18 holes in the final of the Amateur Championship at a sun-kissed Portmarnock but it could have been five had he not lost the 18th hole with a double bogey six.

He got off to a flying start, taking driver on the first three holes as Kilmarnock-Barassie’s Euan Walker took irons and began par-birdie-par to race into a three-hole lead.

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Walker then made a 10 footer for a half in birdie fours at the sixth but after three-putting the seventh to go four down — a true momentum hole after Sugrue had made a 7 footer before him — he watched Sugrue chip and putt for a half in par at the eighth, then stiff his approach to the ninth to find himself five behind at the turn.

The Scot did not looked particularly perturbed and began to chip away at Sugrue’s commanding lead, making an outrageous 50 footer from the swale left of the 10th green for a birdie that the Mallow man could not match.

Sugrue almost repaid him at the 12th, lipping out from 75 feet at the iconic par-three, where the pin was cut on the back right of the green.

But Walker matched his par, pitching 10 feet above the hole from a difficult position short of the green before holing the slippery par putt to remain four down.

He would win the 13th with a two-putt birdie from 18 feet after Sugrue had overshot the green and failed to get up and down.

Sugrue missed a chance to go four up again at the 14th and Walker made a 15 footer for a half. But the Scot then missed a five footer for a win in par at the 15th, where he hit a glorious flop shot from over the green after Sugrue had chipped up to six feet from the Valley of Sin and missed a six footer.

The 16th was halved in fives after both men found sand greenside. But Sugrue went four up again at the 17th with a cast-iron par four as Walker missed from 12 feet for a half having driven into deep rough on the right and then used the practice ground to escape.

At the 18th, it appeared that Sugrue would go in for lunch five-up after Walker was forced to hack out of rough on the right and then failed to make the green with his third after Sugrue had missed the green long right.

Walker pitched to six feet but Sugrue, after a free drop from the pathway, flubbed his chip into a hollow directly behind the pin and left his tricky putt seven feet short.

He would miss his bogey putt, taking six, and Walker did not look a gift horse in the mouth and calmly rolled in his bogey putt for a win against the head that will give him hope for the afternoon.