Reggie wins the East

By Brian Keogh

Richard Kilpatrick eagled the last to clinch a massive eight-shot East of Ireland win and a chance of Walker Cup glory.

The Banbridge man, 25, rifled a four-iron to 18 inches from the left rough at the 581-yard finishing hole to close with a 68 that left him on 13 under par.

Baltray’s Simon Ward was second on five under after a 69 with Shane Lowry a shot further back.

But they simply had no answer to Kilpatrick, whose eight-shot winning margin was the biggest since Garth McGimpsey in 1988 and just two adrift of legend JB Carr, who won by 10 shots in 1956.

Now a real contender for a Walker Cup call up in September, Kilpatrick beamed: “I was just glad to get a monkey off my back - I was due one.

“Since I made the international team four years ago, I have had a lot of semi-finals, second and third places. I just haven’t had the breakthrough but now that I have, I hope it will lead on to better things.

“If Walker Cup comes along, it comes along. My goal at the end of the year is Q-School and I’m trying to get ready for that. Walker Cup would be brilliant but you have to take it one week at a time.”
Six clear starting the day and seven ahead entering the final round after a morning 71, Kilpatrick fed off the positive energy he has picked up working as a caddie-shack attendant at Lake Nona in Florida.

Practice rounds with tour pros such as former Open champion Ben Curtis and tour winners like Graeme McDowell, Trevor Immelman and Maarten Lafeber have shown him that he is not that far away from his dream of a career in golf.

He added: “Those guys are not that far ahead of us but they do things much better from 100 yards in and that’s the only difference. You learn from that.

“You realise they’re not that much better and if you work hard you get the rewards. It gives you a real good sense of confidence.”

Kilpatrick’s first major win and came just a month after he was pipped for the Irish Amateur Open title at Royal Dublin.

And former Irish captain Mark Gannon confessed that he and his fellow Walker Cup selectors will be keeping a close eye on the Ulsterman over the next few weeks.

Gannon said: “He obviously came to the attention of the selectors in the Irish Amateur and when he was in serious contention at the Brabazon Trophy, I sent the selectors out to have a look at him.

“He was on every team I was captain of for three years and he’s a better player now than he was then. He has obviously matured a lot and they were very impressed with him.

“He is very calm, he has a very good attitude, good team player so he's certainly very much a player we will be watching for the next while. We will be keeping a close eye on him.”

Kilpatrick dropped three shots in his final round but knew that it was going to be hard to blow a seven shot lead.

A bogey at the first and fast start by Ward, reduced his advantage to just three shots.

But he stormed ahead again by chipping in for an eagle three at the third and added three birdies and two bogeys after that to go to the last six ahead.

His closing eagle put the finish gloss on a memorable week and he now hopes he can go on and make it as a professional with a trip to the Qualifying School in September.

He added: “My goal at the start of the year was Q school, get a Challenge Tour card and if anything else came along, great.

“I’m just going to try and peak at tour school. But winning is a vital experience, any win at all.”

East of Ireland Amateur (Par 72)
Final
275 R Kilpatrick (Banbridge) 70 66 71 68
283 S Ward (Co Louth) 70 74 70 69
284 S Lowry (Esker Hills) 71 71 73 69
286 N Grant (Knock) 71 72 75 68
288 J Caldwell (Clandeboye) 73 74 68 73, D Lernihan (Castle) 73 71 73 71
290 G McDermott (Co. Sligo) 77 74 71 68, S Grant (Birr) 76 71 70 73
292 M Sinclair (The Knock) 76 74 70 72, R Boal (Scrabo) 76 73 71 72, G Lawlor (Citywest) 74 76 73 69, D Sutton (Lockerbie) 74 73 74 71, S Crowe (Dunmurry) 72 73 78 69
293 E Arthurs (Forrest Little) 78 72 72 71, D Rawluk (The Island) 75 76 72 70, P Murray (Limerick) 69 73 77 74
294 C Curley (Newlands) 75 74 76 69, G Carew (Edenderry) 73 72 73 76
295 F Rafferty (Dungannon) 80 68 71 76
296 M Lavelle (K Club) 77 73 75 71, A Dunbar (Rathmore) 76 72 79 69, G Bohill (Co Louth) 76 72 72 76, N O'Connor (Elm Park) 72 74 73 77
297 D Morgan (Mullingar) 78 74 74 71, A Pitcher (The Island) 74 72 77 74
298 A Hogan (Newlands/UCD) 79 71 74 74, D O'Brien (L & B) 78 73 77 70, C Doran (Banbridge) 76 73 76 73, E O'Sullivan (The Island) 75 75 76 72, N Kearney (Royal Dublin) 74 74 75 75, A Glynn (Porters Park) 73 76 74 75, E McCormack (Galway) 71 76 77 74, D Finn (Mallow) 69 79 77 73
299 H Diamond (Holywood) 79 72 74 74, G McGrane (Royal Dublin) 77 74 74 74, A McCloy (Ballymena) 75 75 74 75, D O'Donovan (Muskerry) 74 77 71 77, C Martin (Kilkenny) 73 76 75 75
301 R Cannon (Laytown & Battystown) 76 76 76 73, M Brett (Portmarnock) 75 74 77 75, G Reid (Spa) 75 72 77 77, A McCormick (Scrabo) 71 76 76 78
302 S Loftus (Ennis) 80 72 76 74, T Cleary (Cork) 77 74 76 75, D McInerney (Lahinch) 75 76 77 74
303 A O'Callaghan (Douglas) 76 74 79 74
305 E McAnoy (Knock) 79 73 75 78
310 D Coyne (Tuam) 75 76 80 79
311 S Shaw (Lisburn) 77 75 80 79
312 D Joyce (Curragh) 77 75 82 78