Galgorm Castle’s Joshua Hill shot what he admitted was probably the best 78 of his life when he produced a stunning birdie-birdie finish to snatch the 60th Mullingar Scratch Trophy by a shot in teeming rain at the classic midlands track.

“I can’t believe I came back to win,” said Hill, who went from five ahead after 54 holes to one behind with five to play before coming through thanks to two clutch birdies at the 17th and 18th. “I thought I threw it away after 12 and 13 but knew I had a small chance by keeping an eye on the leaderboard. I'm just happy to get over the line."

The Ballymena star will celebrate his 19th birthday this coming Saturday and he promised to enjoy the celebrations to the utmost after almost throwing away a chance to join major winners Darren Clarke, Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry and Pádraig Harrington on the list of champions in Mullingar.

Tied for the lead with Westport’s Harry Gillivan on six-under at halfway, three shots clear of the field, Hill proved the 10-under 62 he shot to lead the qualifiers in the recent South of Ireland Championship was no fluke as he added a third-round 66 in Mullingar to ease five strokes clear of Connemara’s Luke O’Neill on 14-under par.

But with the tee times brought forward with heavy rain forecast, Hill bogeyed the second and fifth and followed a two-putt birdie at the sixth with bogeys at the seventh and eighth to see his lead reduced to just three shots.

He then proceeded to drop five shots in a nightmare three-hole stretch from the 11th to briefly find himself one behind O’Neill, who would finish two back in fourth after a 75, on six-under.

After a bogey at the 11th, he lost a ball up a tree right of the par-three 12th then drove out of bounds by centimetres at the 13th and racked up back to back double bogeys.

“I felt pretty confident after the first round then the weather came and started hitting a few loose drives and all of a sudden I was a bit shaky didn’t know where they were coming from and I was trying to search for it during the round whatever was going wrong,” he admitted. 

“I had a few unlucky breaks. The tree one was unlucky and the next hole it bounced right and was on the line of OB, I thought those were two unlucky breaks then I checked the scores after that and saw I was still tied for the lead so I tried to get myself back into it and grind it out. I didn’t have my best stuff this afternoon.”

He would steady the ship with three pars before a rip-roaring finish ensued with as many as five players in with a shout.

While Clandeboye’s Ross Latimer got to six-under with five holes to go, he would bogey the fifth and seventh (his 14th and 16th) tie for fifth with Enniscorthy’s Paul Conroy on four-under.

Royal Dublin’s Max Kennedy made a charge and joined Hill and O’Neill in the lead on six-under playing the last.

As Hill played the 17th up the eighth fairway and made a 35 footer with 10 feet of break to get to seven-under, Kennedy made a seven footer at the 18th for a 66 as playing partner Brandon St John eagled the last from eight feet for a 68 to make it a three-way tie for the lead.

“I knew that Max was on six and was probably going to birdie the last so I knew even going to 18 that I needed to birdie it,” Hill said. “Then Brandon making eagle really threw him into the mix so I had to get it done, you don’t really want to go into a three-man playoff.”

Hill hit a massive 340-yard drive downwind at the 18th and with just 168 yards remaining, he hit a nine-iron to take the water out of play but sailed through the green on the left.

Faced with a trick third from a downslope in a swale, he hit a sensational chip that checked at the top of the downslope and ran down to just six inches from where he tapped in for birdie and a one-shot win over Kennedy and St John on eight-under 280.

“I hit 9 iron I was going to go wedge but I wanted to take the water out of play but with the adrenaline, I could’ve gone pitching wedge,” said Hill, a former Boys international and two-time Jacques Leglise Trophy player for Great Britain and Ireland. 

“I thought it would come down onto the flat and when I saw it there, I thought it would be pretty tricky but I hit probably one of the best chips I've hit in a while.

“At least I know when I get down to the end of it, I have it in me. I just want to know what went wrong the first 13-14 holes to cause all that, it should have been an easy walk through two or three under last 18 but conditions were not ideal to say the least.”

Now that he’s joined the greats as a winner in Mullingar, he wants to go on and match their exploits in the professional ranks as he plans to take a gap year for the next 12 months before taking up a golf scholarship at the University of South Alabama.

“It seems all of them have won it,” he said of past winners Clarke, McIlroy, Harrington and Lowry and Ryder Cup stars Paul McGinley and Philip Walton. “It’s nice to put your name beside all them, definitely, especially when you are trying to follow in their footsteps and turn pro and win majors and stuff.

“It’s probably the first time I have ever been happy to shoot 78.

“I was four-over through 11 and you could argue that with the conditions it wasn’t that bad. Making those two doubles made it way too hard.”

Mullingar Scratch Trophy sponsored by Sherry Fitzgerald Davitt & Davitt and Pinergy, Mullingar GC (Par 72)

Final

Detailed scores

280 J Hill (Galgorm Castle) 66 70 66 78;

281 M Kennedy (Royal Dublin) 74 66 75 66, B St. John (Portmarnock) 73 67 73 68;

282 L O'Neill (Connemara) 70 69 68 75;

284 P Conroy (Enniscorthy) 73 69 74 68, R Latimer (Clandeboye) 69 74 66 75;

285 L Abom (Edmondstown) 72 71 71 71, J Rackard (Enniscorthy) 69 72 70 74;

286 J Hewitt (Tandragee) 73 69 74 70, T Ford (Co. Sligo) 70 71 70 75, R Cannon (Balbriggan) 66 77 69 74;

287 A Fahy (Bray) 71 68 74 74, W Small (Tandragee) 71 68 74 74, R Griffin (Ballybofey & Stranorlar) 69 72 73 73;

288 T Higgins (Roscommon) 75 70 73 70, T Dowdall (Woodbrook) 72 73 74 69, J Doherty (Carton House) 69 74 69 76;

289 D Kitt (Athenry) 75 70 72 72, S Desmond (Monkstown) 72 72 71 74, C Harkin (Letterkenny) 69 73 72 75, Q Carew (Castleknock) 68 73 72 76, R Milne (Faithlegg) 68 71 77 73;

290 A Hill (Roscommon) 72 69 76 73, D Morgan (Carton House) 71 76 72 71, G Dunne (Co. Louth) 71 70 73 76;

291 P McGrath (Galway Bay) 74 72 72 73, J McCabe (Roganstown) 74 70 72 75, A Grant (Dundalk) 73 74 73 71, A Smith (Mullingar) 70 75 74 72, J Mc Donnell (Forrest Little) 70 72 75 74;

292 E Sullivan (Carton House) 72 72 74 74, D Flynn (Carton House) 69 74 71 78;

293 D O'Riordan (Fermoy) 74 72 74 73, S Carroll (Ballybunion) 73 70 72 78, H Gillivan (Westport) 68 68 75 82;

294 J Butler (Killeen) 74 71 75 74, C Butler (Kinsale) 71 72 77 74;

295 S O'Brien (Nenagh) 73 73 75 74, J McCarthy (Grange) 72 72 74 77;

296 M O'Sullivan (Ballyneety) 76 72 74 74, M Boucher (Carton House) 76 72 73 75, C Hickey (Dooks) 76 71 73 76, J Whelan (Grange) 76 70 71 79, R Abernethy (Dun Laoghaire) 76 69 76 75, S O'Connell (Athenry) 74 74 76 72, D Muldowney (Carton House) 73 70 76 77, D Reddan Jnr (Nenagh) 71 76 70 79;

297 S Cunningham (Esker Hills) 72 72 74 79;

298 I O'Connell (Castleknock) 70 71 80 77;

300 A Kiernan (Forrest Little) 72 72 74 82;

RTD 146 P O'Hanlon (Carton House) 74 72.