Hermitage Golf Club star Kate secures Irish Close title
HERMITAGE Golf Club member Kate Lanigan was celebrating last weekend when she became the Irish Girls’ Close Champion at Clandeboye.
The semi-final matchups saw Valerie Clancy (Killarney) take on Aine Donegan (Woodstock) and Lanigan go up against 13-year-old Emma Fleming (Elm Park).
An understandably nervous start meant Donegan would go 3 down through 6 holes to Clancy. Donegan was not about to let her opportunity slip however, and fighting back, she levelled the match through 17 holes only for Clancy to birdie the final hole to secure a place in her first Irish Girls’ Close Final.
Kate Lanigan with her dad Brian holding the trophy. Photo by Pat Cashman
The Lucan golfer had cruised through her opponents thus far in the competition and next to step up to the test was Fleming, who had herself won all of her matches convincingly in the competition.
With determination, Lanigan went ahead early and built a lead which Fleming would not recover from.
On the 13th hole, Lanigan went 5 up with 5 holes to play, and when Fleming won the par 3 14th to keep the match alive, it ended a streak of 49 holes without a loss for Lanigan – an impressive feat in itself.
An impressive display of golf in the final saw Lanigan continue her run of remarkable wins and with a par on the 13th hole, she closed out the match 6&5.
“I was so comfortable this week, in Sweden last week at Europeans I gained so much experience and I just felt great coming into this event even though I was a bit tired given all of the golf I’ve played lately.”
Beaming beside her after the win, dad Brian pointed out that of 90 possible holes, Lanigan had only played 63 and was under par for all her matches.
“Valerie has so much experience and had taken me under her wing a small bit last week as it was my first time playing for Ireland at the level.
“I just focused on hitting fairways and greens and if the putts dropped, that was great. So I am very happy with how I played!”
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