Quentin Carew, the youngest of three boys, is enveloped in an embrace by brother Dougie after making eagle at the 20th to win the 2022 AIG Men’s Amateur Close Championship on the Championship Course at Headfort. Picture; Thos Caffrey/Golffile

So the last shall be first.

Castleknock’s Quentin Carew, a solid player who never threatened to win big before, hit the shot his life and eagled the 20th to come from four down at the turn to deny Royal Dublin’s Hugh Foley the AIG Irish Amateur Close and a famous hat-trick at Headfort.

Foley (25) was bidding to become the first man since Darren Clarke in 1990 to win the North of Ireland, South of Ireland and the Irish Close titles in the same season.

But he came up against a tough customer in serving Garda Carew (31), a long-time member member of Edenderry and a native of Allenwood in Co Kildare, who simply refused to go away.

A 200-shot before the championship, Carew was in Edenderry caddying for his father in the nine-hole captain’s prize playoff on Sunday when he learned he’d moved from 65th to 64th in qualifying for the Close. But having scraped into the matchplay as the final qualifier after a countback, he showed his talent by dumping out leading qualifier Alex Maguire in the first round. All with a bad back after sustaining injuries in a car crash in the course of duty last year.

He went on to beat Faithlegg’s Rory Milne, Elm Park’s Jake Foley and Portumna’s Sam Murphy before knocking out Enniscorthy’s Paul Conroy by one hole in the semi-finals.

Foley was going for his fifth amateur Major in his last 10 appearances and after battling his way through the tough side of the draw- Sean Flanagan 19th, Jack McDonnell 1 hole, Max Kennedy 1 hole, Richard Knightly 1 hole — before seeing off international team made Matt McClean 3&2 in five-under par figures in the semis.

Even though he’d struggled a little from the tee in the morning, he looked unbeatable.

He cruised four-up at the turn in the decider, winning five holes in a row from the fifth, having halved the first in three-putt bogeys and lost the third when Carew stiffed his approach.

But Carew birdied the 10th, then made a clutch five footer to match Foley’s up-and-down for par at the short 11th to remain three down.

He claimed the 12th with a conceded birdie (12 ft) after Foley drove left and forced to carry a tree, almost found water behind the green and couldn’t chip close or make an 18 footer for par.

Now 2-down, Carew won the par-five 14th with a conceded par after Foley drove into the left bunker and was forced to head up the neighbouring fairway. Carew was in greenside sand short right when Foley found the sand left of the green in three, thinned his fourth over the green and still wasn’t on the green in five.

One down, Carew went on to win the par-five 16th with a conceded eagle after a brilliant 265-yard three-wood to four feet to square the match as Foley skirted a fairway bunker but hit a tired-looking long iron into sand right of the green, overshot the green with his third and hit the pin with his fourth before conceding.

“I hit 3-wood in from 265 and I knew I could hit it as hard as I want,” Carew said. |Now look, I wasn’t exactly taking on the flag full on but it peeled nicely onto the flag and that was a huge moment to get it back to level and it gave me a great boost of confidence in myself, that I could finish the job out and I had the shots to do it.”

Both men had chances at the 17th, 18th and 19th before Carew hit a career-best, 267-yard two-iron to eight feet at the 523-yard 20th and rolled in the putt for glory after Foley had bunkered his second and missed from 15 feet for birdie.

His brother ran to hug him but he turned first to Foley to shake hands, then turned and fell into an emotional embrace with Dougie as another brother, long-time campaigner Greg, took in the scenes.

Eagle! Quentin Carew is @AIGIreland Irish Close champion. What a win. At the 20th from 4 down after 9. pic.twitter.com/Xe98oZ6egK
— Brian Keogh (@IrishGolfDesk) August 17, 2022

“I can’t even put it into words at the moment,” said Carew, who credited older brother Dougie on his bag for keeping him upbeat. “I thought through nine holes the dream was maybe starting to slip away from me but I rallied with a couple of birdies.

“Hugh is just phenomenal, just so hard to play against doesn’t put a foot wrong I knew I had to hit the shots and last few holes I hit some big ones. The 16th was big and the 2-iron there was the one that rounded it off. I can’t believe it, I really can’t believe it.”

He wondered would he regret missing birdie chances from 18 feet at the 17th, 11 feet at the 18th and 12 feet at the 19th but made no mistake after his stunning two-iron to the 20th.

“You don’t get many chances against Hugh Foley to win a match and I thought 19 was the one and it just slipped the edge and I thought maybe the chance might have been and gone,” he said. “But Dougie again rallied me and said ‘get going again, get another opportunity.’”

On the key shot, he said: “I hit 2-iron from 267 I hit it as hard as I can and just hoped it would get there and luckily it landed in the perfect spot and went to about eight feet. That's the winner there, I won’t hit a better one than that. I couldn’t believe it when I hit it, it just came out of the screws it really did so it will be the one I remember for the rest of my life I'm sure.”

Back on duty on the seven to seven shift tomorrow, he added: “The big thing with myself is having that confidence and belief and that was a big one today to show I am capable of doing it. It's a very proud moment for me and my family, I owe it all to them as well they were with me the whole way.”

Foley, who was controversially left out of the three-man Irish team for the Eisenhower Trophy, was gracious in defeat.

“It’s hard to reflect on the year now but’s great to get to a final. It just a really long week. Really tiring. I am wrecked. That was pretty impressive there from Quentin eagling that 20th hole. That was brilliant. I tried my best and just came up short. It’s been a good year. Pity but a good result I suppose.”

Asked if he ran out of steam, he said: “He had great back nine I would say, three-under or something. I suppose I felt I struggled off the tee, even in the first match. I was getting it around and I scored brilliantly this morning but I was just getting it around with the driver. I just didn’t score as well in the afternoon. I had a good lead through nine. And the back nine, I don’t think I had a birdie.

“Tired? Possibly. I was trying to get myself riled up. Yeah. I was pretty solid. I was pretty tired. I felt pretty tired but I had a good talk to myself after 18 and felt I hit some pretty nice golf shots and I was pretty riled up again and got some adrenaline. But that shot was awesome there. Fair play to him. That was awesome.”

AIG Irish Amateur Close Championship Headfort (New Course)

Detailed scores

Semi-finals:

Quentin Carew (Castleknock) bt Paul Conroy (Enniscorthy) 1 hole;

Hugh Foley (Royal Dublin) bt Matt McClean (Malone) 3&2.

Final – Carew bt Foley at 20th.