John Doyle’s fantastic season continued as he booked his spot in the quarter-finals of the R&A Boys Amateur Championship at County Louth Golf Club.
Doyle pipped Tim Brohl by the narrowest of margins with a birdie on the last to win the match 1UP and set up a last-8 clash Spain’s Yago Horno.
Doyle won the opening hole with a birdie but lost the 2nd to a birdie. The pair traded birdies on the third but Doyle went three-under through four and 1UP with a birdie.
Brohl carded back to back birdies to come from behind and move 1UP but back to back bogeys from the German saw Doyle inch ahead again.
Doyle dropped a shot on the ninth as the pair made the turn all square but he fell behind to a birdie on the 12th.
A par on 16 was enough for Doyle to level affairs going down the closing stretch and he saved his best for last, rolling in a ten footer on the last for a match winning birdie.
It’s been a breakout year for Doyle who has represented Ireland at senior level in the European Team Championships and the Home Internationals. The 17-year-old has also won twice this season, picking up the Irish Boys title and Munster Strokeplay.
He has come close to clinching a hat trick of victories with a playoff defeat at the St Andrews Links Trophy but a victory at the Boys Championship and potentially becoming the first Irish winner since Leslie Walker in 1986 could put him on the Walker Cup radar next month if not Junior Ryder Cup in America.
The Fota Island star had previously knocked out Sweden’s Filip Grave 5&4 in the last-32 on Thursday morning.
Scoring HERE
