It takes grit and determination, as well as talent, to win golf championships and Paula Grant showed abundance of all those assets when regaining the Irish Women's Close title, at Mullingar. She won an exciting final by 3&1 against Dubliner Ciara Casey.
Lisburn plus-three handicapper Grant hadn't to pass the 15th green in any of her matches up to the final. The decider, however, proved to be different. At one stage, it seemed that she mightn't even reach the 15th green. Unlike, in her other games, she had failed to establish authority early.
“We were level at the turn but I lost the next two holes when I drove into trees at the 10th and three-putted the 11th,” recalled Paula. “Still, I wasn't too worried as I had been playing well in the championship and my putting had been good, despite that lapse, so I just knuckled down and kept plugging away.”
That she did in a birdie blitz. She birdied the short 12th, the par four 13th and the long 14th. She then won the 15th with a par to leap two ahead. Teenager Casey, who will enter a golf scholarship at Maynooth University in September, steadied to half the 16th hole but that was her dying kick.
“I hit a good wedge shot into four feet from the flag at 17 and made birdie three to end the match,” explained freelance optomaterist Grant (23), the leading qualifier in the British Women's Open Championship, in Wales, ten days ago. “I holed the putt and that was it. It was nice to hit a few good shots to finish.”
It is the second time that she won the Irish Close Championship. She was also successful, at Ballybunion in 2013, when she defeated Lisa Maguire (Slieve Russell) at the 19th hole. Now she is preparing to chase more success.
“In two weeks' time we will be off to Portugal for the European Team Championship but I will rest up a bit, from golf, in the meantime. Her super form, of course, is down to hard work and she has a lot of people assisting her.
“For general tuition I got to Lisburn professional Stephen Hamill and then the ILGU has a number of pros who work with the international players. Johnny Foster is the short game tutor, Donal Scott is in charge of putting and Chris Jelly is the High Performance long game teacher. Robbie Cannon works with us on the fitness aspect of the game, so we are well looked after.
“Of course, I am not in touch with all, or any, of those people on a regular basis. I only contact them if necessary. Otherwise, I'd have no time to work or play,” stresses Paula.
The big shock of the Irish Women's Close was the defeat of Irish Open champion Maria Dunne (Skerries). She lost by 4&3 to Mary Dowling (New Ross), before heading off to this week's Vagliano Trophy, in Italy, as a member of the GB&I team.
