JONATHAN Keane became the first Lahinch local to win the Pierse Motors South of Ireland Amateur Open Championship since 1968 on Sunday.
The 25-year-old claimed a 1up victory over 2018 Champion, Caolan Rafferty (Dundalk), before emotional scenes in front of hundreds of spectators surrounding the 18th green in Lahinch.
Keane was embraced by family and friends as well as JD Smyth, who won this tournament 57 years ago.
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“Absolutely delighted, this has been my dream since I joined this golf club and for it to come true it’s absolutely unbelievable. Just thrilled,” said Keane.
“I felt good over it (the putt on 18) because I have had that putt loads of times before, that back left pin. Just knew what to do. I wasn’t feeling any nerves or anything, just feeling 100 percent confident.
“It was just shock for about five seconds.”
Once again, Rafferty was first into the clubhouse in the morning, and for the third match in a row he secured a 5&3 victory. This time he defeated Jake Whelan (Grange) to book his place in the final.
The bigger crowd was following Keane’s match and he bounced back from an early two-hole deficit to win 2&1 against Liam Abom (Edmondstown).
Rafferty had all of the experience coming into the final but it was Keane who took the early advantage winning the third and fourth holes. They traded holes before the end of the front nine and Keane took a 2up lead into the turn.
The crowd continued to swell as the afternoon wore on and the tension grew in an enthralling contest.
Rafferty got one back on 11 but the Kilfenora man bounced right back on 12. When Rafferty won 15 and 16 it looked as though he would push on but Keane held his nerve on 17 to sink an eight-foot putt.
His brilliance on 18 left him with six feet for the win and he duly obliged before massive celebrations.
It was a wonderful comeback story for the Lahinch man, who follows up the win from fellow member Patrick Adler last year, after a few years where he battled with injury.
“I got injured at the start of Covid. I was doing a lot of practice, kind of got into mindset of trying to drive the ball an absolute mile. Bryson DeChambeau effect, and I was doing an awful lot of gym work,” said Keane.
“I had nothing to do during Covid so I used to go down to the beach and practice. I used to hit about 250 balls a day. And after six months of doing that non-stop and too much gym, the body gave up, I had herniated discs in my lower back, I couldn’t play golf.
“Was about two and a half years without any golf, and then tried every sort of a thing. I didn’t want to go down the route of surgery. That’s something that I didn’t really believe would work for me.
“And after about three years of being out of the game, I finally got back into it. So around the South in 2023 I started golfing two weeks before that, and I went out and I shot 80 something.
“Some nights you’d be waking up with pain, couldn’t fall asleep. So it’s just unbelievable now that I’ve come back from that and managed to win the competition I’ve always dreamt of.”
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