Peter O’Keeffe would dearly have loved to win the 120th South of Ireland Championship but the Douglas man had few complaints as he went down 3&1 to Royal Dublin’s Hugh Foley in a stiff southwesterly breeze at Lahinch.

"When he’s playing well, he’s the best player,” said O’Keeffe, who pulled off a minor miracle in the morning semi-finals played in typhoon-like conditions of wind and rain by coming back from four down after eight holes to beat Galway’s Liam Nolan on the 19th.

“Out of all the players in Ireland, he can play all the shots. I came up against it today and he was on his game. I had a few chances I didn’t take and got unlucky I thought on 17 but he made a great birdie on 16 so that’s the way it goes.”

Foley became the first man since Darren Clarke in 1990 to do the double when he followed his North of Ireland win 10 days ago with a memorable triumph in the Pierse Motors Volkswagen-sponsored event at the pristine Co Clare links.

The 25-year-old Dubliner came of age at Lahinch in 2019 when he led the qualifiers by a whopping seven strokes (64-70) and beat O’Keeffe, who birdied the 18th and then hit his approach to four feet as Nolan bogeyed the 19th, in the last 16 en route to a quarter-final appearance.

Buoyed by that success and after improving his game at the Made in Holywood Academy under the watchful eye of Geoff Loughrey (and Michael Bannon) at Roganstown, he went on to win the AIG Irish Close at Rosapenna in 2020 and last September’s strokeplay edition of the West of Ireland before picking up his third “Major” at Royal Portrush with some stunning play down the stretch.

While he has set his sights on next year’s Walker Cup, he’d love to add some overseas silverware to his collection so he can stake his claim to a place on that Great Britain and Ireland team at the Old Course.

“It feels great, feels amazing, so many boxes ticked,” said Foley, who beat Naas’ Robert Brazill 5&4 in horrific wind and rain in the morning. “It’s one of my favourite championships because of the golf course, the people, the town.

“I’ve done well in strokeplay and always felt I ran out of steam [in matchplay]. Somehow didn’t run out of steam this week.”

The final took just two hours and 52 minutes in a stiff but dry southwesterly wind and just three holes halved on the front nine as Foley birdied the first but bogeyed the second and third and lost the fourth to a birdie to find himself two down.

He got back to level with pars at the sixth and seventh but after losing the 10th to a par to go one down, he recalled how he played the back nine in 31 to win at Portrush and moved up a gear.

With his reliable fade back in the groove following some remedial work with coach Loughrey and his confidence restored at Portrush after an indifferent year, Foley made a good putt for a half in par at the 11th and halved the 12th in birdie.

Portrush crossed his mind as he walked to the 13th tee and he won the hole with a two-putt birdie from the apron to level the match before taking the 14th in par, almost holing from 100 feet, to go one-up as O’Keeffe missed the green long left and failed to get up and down.

The 15th was halved in bogey fives before Foley drilled a 202-yard seven-iron to 20 feet at the 16th and rolled in the putt to go two-up after O’Keeffe again missed long left and faced a tough putt for par.

“I said it to (caddie) Marcus (Nolan) that this guy is someone who chips it on to ten feet and holes it when he has to so just try and roll it in,” Foley said.

Foley split the 17th fairway and with O’Keeffe’s drive up against the boundary wall on the left, he mercilessly rifled a six-iron to the heart of the green and didn’t have to putt as the Corkman was forced to chip out sideways and was still not down in four.

“I’m no Darren Clarke but it’s a nice thing to share with him,” said the champion, who may try Q-School in September but plans to chase the “pinnacle” of the amateur game and that Walker Cup cap next year.

"I've seen his name on a couple of those trophies so yeah, those are nice things to hear but I've a long way to go if I'm to catch him.”

He admitted his season was disappointing until the North and his failure to be named in the Great Britain and Ireland St Andrews Trophy team (which featured Matthew McClean, Robert Moran and Mark Power) lit a fire under him.

“I obviously missed out on last week’s team and that definitely gave me a little bit of an edge to get back on the horse the last two weeks,” said Foley, who became the first man since Darren Clarke in 1990 to do the North-South double. “I am delighted with those two weeks.”

He’d been struggling with his swing but having re-tooled it with the help of coach Loughrey and gotten a result at Portrush, it stood to him down the stretch at Lahinch.

“I have always faded the ball but I had a bad shot in me which is over the top and a big pull left, so I started to draw the ball to get the club path straightened up,” he explained. “It worked for a little bit and then I found under pressure my body almost rejected it. 

“So I struggled a bit. I started to struggle under pressure at the British Amateur and European Amateur. I was really down after that but I went back to try and fade it and I’ve been doing that all my life so it didn’t take too long I guess and I felt like I was so used to drawing it, I could draw it too if I really needed to. So I had way more confidence all of a sudden. My expectations were down so I took the pressure off myself and it all came together at the same time.”

As for that rollercoaster front nine, he said: “There is nothing more frustrating than throwing away holes. I did that well. I didn’t lose any balls this week, desperately trying to stay in holes. But I guess the turning point for me mentally was walking from the 12th green to the 13th. I just thought back on the back nine at the North (31 to win by one), if I am being honest. And that seemed to work. I tried to stay relaxed, almost as if I was playing strokeplay and just tried to make birdies and be aggressive. And all swings I put together over the last few holes worked.”

It was fitting he should triumph at Lahinch, where he first believed he had the game to become a championship contender in 2019.

“That’s true. 2019 was the turning point year and that score here was the turning point score,” he said. “Eight under in a championship, I didn’t think I could do that five or six years ago, and I haven’t done it since. That was a big turning point.”

South of Ireland Amateur Open, sponsored by Pierse Motors Volkswagen, Lahinch GC (Old Course)

Semi-finals:

Hugh Foley (Royal Dublin) bt Robert Brazill (Naas) 5&4

Peter O’Keeffe (Douglas) bt Liam Nolan (Galway) 19th.

Final:

Foley bt O’Keeffe 3&1.