Eureka! — Lynch claims dream North of Ireland win
Ian Lynch (Rosslare) winner of the North of Ireland Championship at Royal Portrush Golf Club, Portrush, Co. Antrim on Friday 13th July 2018. Picture: Thos Caffrey / Golffile
Rosslare's Ian Lynch claimed the biggest win of his career when he captured the North of Ireland Amateur Open at Royal Portrush.
The 29-year old overcame English challenger Kieran Babbage from The Players Club in Bristol by 2 and 1 on the Dunluce Links that will host The Open in 12 months’ time.
"I just came up for a holiday and went to the Giant's Causeway and did all the touristy stuff," Lynch said. "Then I got through the qualifying and took it one match at a time.
"Even though I got to the final I still wasn't thinking about it at all. I took it one hole at a time and one shot at a time and I had a good mentality. I wasn't putting too much pressure on myself.
"I got to the matchplay stages of the West in 2014 but Robbie Cannon beat me with a birdie on 18 that day. Other than that I'd played the North four times and never made the cut. Making the cut is the hardest part.
"I didn't expect to win a championship, it's true, and while I will try to win another one, nobody can ever take this away from me.
"I've won a Jimmy Bruen All Ireland with Rosslare in 2006 and then in 2013 we won a Leinster Barton Shield before Sligo beat us in the semi-finals of the All Ireland. Then in 2014 we won the Senior Cup in Leinster and came up short in the All Ireland, which was heartbreaking."
Lynch was frequently the anchorman for his club and his ability to squeak out a result in a tight match stood to him at Royal Portrush.
After qualifying on one-under-par following a three-under 68 on the Valley and 74 on the might Dunluce links, he beat Styal's Jacob Oakley on the 20th in the first round, then defeated Mourne's James Maginn 2 and 1 in the afternoon before going to beat Lisburn's Christopher Moulds 4 and 3 in the last 16 and earn a quarter-final showdown with Eanna Griffin from Waterford.
Griffin was the highest ranked player left in the Championship but Lynch came back from two down with two to play to win that one on the 19th to set up a semi-final meeting with leading qualifier Matt McClean from Balmoral.
"I know Eanna well from playing him a few times in Regional golf and it was a nice one to win alright."
A 2 and 1 win put him in the final against Babbage, who beat Jack Hearn (1 hole), Charlie Denvir (1 hole), Patrick McCrudden (4/3) and Matt McAlpin (1 hole) before seeing off the excellent Adam Mulhall from Ardglass on the 19th after squandering a three-hole lead on the back nine.
It was Babbage who was forced to fight in the decider and while he battled back to all square three times on the front nine, where Lynch holed two crucial putts — from 25 feet for a win at the third and 12 feet for a half in par at the fourth — he lost the 10th and 11th to pars to go two down, then got into bunker trouble at the 14th to find himself three down with four to play.
A bogey by Lynch at the terrifying, 236-yard par-three 16th — Calamity — left Babbage two down with two to play.
And while he got up and down from a greenside bunker to save par at the downhill 17th, Lynch coolly lagged his 30 footer stone dead for a winning par and victory.
"I was just taking it one hole at a time and not worrying too much about the score," Lynch said. "It was only later when I realised I was never behind. I knew I was playing well.
"Looking back, those putts on the third and fourth were two key putts. But for the whole week the idea was that par golf was going to be hard to beat 99 percent of the time.
"I fairness to Kieran, he threw a few birdies at me on the front nine — he birdied the fifth, which was a great birdie to that pin, and the seventh as well. You don't feel bad about losing holes to birdies but I just tried to make pars and keep going.
"On 17 I hit driver and had a little wedge down the hill which in normal circumstance is a now, straightforward shot. His tee shot was in the hill on the right and I knew he was in trouble.
"He was a bit unlucky with his second, which just caught the lip of the bunker but he hit a great bunker shot and I had a 30 footer. It was up a hill and down a hill and I managed to get it up the hill and saw it trickle down beside the hole. I was happy to see it come to rest about six inches away and he gave me the putt."
He grew up near the Rosslare links, learning the game by chipping and putting to holes cut in the back garden by his father, who is a greenkeeper at the club, before taking up pitch and putt at seven or eight, graduating to the then nine-hole Burrow links at 12, where he'd play all day with his younger brother Paul.
"My Mum worked across from the golf club and she's drop the two of us off in the morning three or four times a week and we'd play our 18 holes."
He's already bought his tickets for The Open at Royal Portrush next year though he doubts it will be set up as tough as it was for the "North".
"The rough wasn't too bad but the pin on 16 was hanging off the right edge of the green," he said with a chuckle. "I'd love to see the pros take on that pin from 230 yards and see how they get on.
"I missed that green right twice— in the final and in the quarters against Eanna as well. Both times I made a four, which is a good score from down there."
While Liam MacNamara is also a member of Rosslare, Lynch believes he is the first native Rosslare man to win a championship.
A graduate of Landscape Architecture at UCD, he dreamt of a career in golf course design but is now working in software design.
"I didn't really time it well for golf course design and graduated with the recession in full swing," he joked.
The good news that is that while he was working out his next move, he got his handicap down from three to scratch and then did a computer science qualification in Carlow IT.
"I've been working for software design company Eureka in Rosslare for five years now," he said. "It's been a nice career transition."
Now that he's got a championship, like Archimedes, he can finally say he's found it.
North of Ireland Amateur Open Championship, Royal Portrush
Semi-finals
Ian Lynch (Rosslare) bt Matthew McClean (Malone) 2/1
Kieran Babbage (The Players Club) bt Adam Mulhall (Ardglass) 19th.
Final
Lynch bt Babbage 2/1.
