The North-East acquitted itself well with all 5 players finishing in the top 20 at last weekend’s inaugural World Pitch and Putt Individual Strokeplay Championship outside Montpellier in south France.

Two Cork men, two Spanish and a Dutch man claimed the top five spots to mark this historic event in the development of international Pitch and Putt.

Stackallen’s Sean Downes finished strongly to claim 6^th spot on -9 while -6 got Bellewstown’s Anto Kavanagh and Ian Farrelly finishing joint 11^th while fellow clubman Damien Mullaney claimed joint 20^th with Castletown and Seapoint’s James Carroll joining him on -2 overall.

Very tough conditions prevailed in Round Two with a gale wind picking up which led to most players slipping down the leaderboard.  One of the few to go up the leaderboard was Castletown’s and Seapoint’s James Carroll who shot a fine 51 after his disappointing opening 56 to leave himself -1 going into the final day.

Tropical storms greeted the players when they woke on Sunday morning and it seemed highly likely that the Championship would be curtailed to 36 holes.  However, on Sunday afternoon the rain cleared up and play continued.  Overnight leader on -10, Fernando Cano from Spain was not to be caught and he added a superb 48 to be the only player not to have one bogey for all 3 rounds; a truly incredible feat which rightfully earned him the title as first ever World Pitch and Putt champion.

ENDS