Walker and Fleming claim Irish Intervarsity titles at Bundoran
Maynooth University’s Simon Walker capped off a fantastic three days in Bundoran to claim the Men’s Irish Intervarsity Championship with a dominant final round display on the Donegal links.
Defending women’s champion, Emma Fleming retained her crown as the UCD student carded rounds of 72, 77 and 71 to finish tied for 17th on ten over.
Walker teed up in blustery conditions on Friday morning holding a two-shot lead over fellow Maynooth students Thomas Abom and Aodhagan Brady and the Roscommon golfer showed no signs of letting that advantage slip when taking just 32 shots in a three-under front nine.
After a bogey at the 10th, Walker quickly steadied himself and following his fifth birdie of the day on the par-three 13th, he held a commanding six-shot lead over nearest rival Brady.
With one hand on the trophy, Walker continued his excellent play making yet another birdie at the 17th to help him on his way to a closing round of three-under 67 and an impressive five-shot victory on 10-under-par.
“I had no real expectations coming in here this week, but game is kind of trending well and just seemed to click,” he said.
“Decent round the first day and then all came together on the back nine yesterday which put me into a position coming into today and then the putter got hot at the start of today and kind of took off from there then.
“I haven’t had the best of seasons this year, so it is nice to finish off well. It has been a great week.”
There would be double delight too for Walker and Maynooth University as the team championship would return to the Kildare college once again with the trio of James Walsh, Liam Abom and the 2024 men’s champion combining for an eight-under total.
A countback saw them finish ahead of colleagues Brady, Jordan Boles and Thomas Abom, giving ‘Maynooth 2’ the bragging rights this year.
“We have a great squad this year, so it’s been nice to get one up on a few of the lads back in Maynooth,” said Walker.
“I nearly threw it away on the last with a three putt but there was a good bit of slagging going on back in the house between Maynooth 1 and Maynooth 2 so it’s a few bragging rights now that we have earned.”
View the final scores here.
