Cahill Claims National Honours

Brian Cahill is the new leading light at Lakeside at the present time after his fantastic All Ireland Junior Strokeplay Championship played at Tralee last Saturday. Cahill, although playing the game for a number of years now, really only concentrated on participating in tournaments this year and what a year the Drom man is having. Having already won the Munster Junior Strokeplay at Bruff in late May, he justifiably went into last Saturday’s competition with the favourites tag, the question was could he live up to the expectation? He seemed nervous at the beginning and this was to be expected, he made a few errors in the middle of the round and found himself +3 after 16 holes. The next 20 holes Brian played some outstanding pitch and putt. He was –5 in total playing his 36th hole but more importantly he was –8 for the 19 holes previous to that and this would be incredible standard for a Junior player in a competition of this magnitude. An unfortunate bogey on the last hole left Brian on –4 after 36 holes and he was well and truly in the driving seat. He would have a 3 shot lead going into the Final round and this would be to prove very beneficial. Brian started the Final 18 very steadily and was level par after 6 holes, he managed to birdie the tough 7th hole and his opponent took a bogey and Brian was ahead by 5 shots now at this stage. His opponent birdied the 8th hole but he bogeyed the 9th and Brian was playing very steadily, making no mistakes which was vital at this stage of the competition. By the time Brian reached the treacherous 12th hole he was nearly home and hosed but this hole was killing people all day and although Brian bogeyed it, the relief could be seen from his face that this was hole was now over and he could smell the taste of victory only 6 holes to go. Once again he birdied the 13th hole, the pitch he played was majestic and left himself a tap in much to his delight. He pared the next 4 holes and playing down the last hole he had a 5 shot lead and only he could lose it at this stage. He pitched behind the green which was the sensible tee shot as the green was surrounded by a big bunker, he failed to get up and down but he tapped in for a bogey and with it claimed the All Ireland Junior Strokeplay Title. His band of supporters went wild with celebrations and Brian proved to be an extremely popular winner. Although Brian is a quite, unassuming young man, his desire to win and will to succeed has ensured that he has a very bright future in the game.