Rafferty wins East of Ireland Open

Dundalk golfer Caolán Rafferty won the Kingspan East of Ireland Amateur Open at County Louth Golf Club, Baltry on Monday last.

Having finished second in 2022 and 2023, the Dundalk Golf Club member had to weather a nerve-wracking finish before defeating Max Kennedy by one stroke in the final round with a 65.

When speaking after the event the 28-year-old said: “I wanted to win this pretty bad so just knew, keep at it, keep at it and see what happens.

“It was just one of them days where anything I looked at was going to go in and I kept giving myself chances. I just grinded it out and got there in the end.”

The Dromiskin man was three shots off the lead going into the lead going into the last two rounds. However, he quickly caught up with a strong round three that featured four birdies signing for a -4 round of 68 and putting him only one shot off the lead.

“I just knew that I had to go low. I only made three bogeys all week which is a good sign as well, but I just knew if I kept doing what I was doing I would give myself a good few chances even though I didn’t hit the ball overly well,” said Rafferty.

“I still had a lot of chances in the first three rounds and just didn’t hole a lot, so I said if they start dropping which they did early on that we’d be all good.”

The Irish international displayed the poise that had previously won the West of Ireland and South of Ireland championships in his final round, carding an outstanding -7 round of 65.

“It’s one of them, you just put so much into it and then keep falling short and then when I done what I done on 18 I was like don’t tell me I’ve done it again,” said Rafferty.

“I just had the ball below my feet, went with a three wood probably shouldn’t have done it. I had no idea of the scoring but played it as if I’m one behind let’s press and make birdies so I went with three wood, hit an awful three wood.”

Max Kennedy of Royal Dublin was the player who battled to the very end, applying pressure to the leader with birdies on holes 15 and 16. Rafferty believed that he wasn't hitting the ball as well this week in County Louth, but in the end, his new putter and practice sessions paid off.

He said: “Made hard work of it on the last but was nice to get it over the line. I played really solid today, didn’t do anything really wrong, just held a lot of putts. I just went out with the mindset of needing to shoot a low one

“I drove the ball poorly all week, found a bit of a groove on the last few I suppose but down to striking wise it wasn’t one of the better weeks or one of the better rounds.”