Weather fails to dampen classy Carter’s spirits
Conditions were so bad that the opening 36 holes scheduled for Saturday had to be abandoned leaving the event to be decided over the final two rounds yesterday.
Even then, the organising committee had to produce a trojan effort and senior executive members of Cork Golf Club were out in force sweeping large puddles off the greens.
None of this seemed to bother the 22 year-old Carter who arrived in Cork buoyed by the knowledge that he had won an Irish Universities Series event over the course last year when he was a student at Maynooth and a member of the Paddy Harrington Golf Scholarship programme. He has since graduated with a degree in psychology and believes his game has benefited from a lengthy spell playing and practising in South Africa during the winter.
Carter performed with remarkable consistency to shoot two rounds of 70 for a four under par total of 140, two ahead of Paul Murphy from Rosslare and Mark Shanahan of Castlemartyr.
He went into the afternoon session two strokes behind Eanna Griffin of Waterford in what was a crowded leader board and again kept mistakes to a minimum on the way to the biggest win of his career.
“This course obviously sets up nicely for me and to shoot 70 in the morning without dropping any strokes was very encouraging,” he said.
“My long game was in good shape and so I didn’t have to scramble at any stage. I gave myself a lot of chances and managed to take them now and then.”
Kieran McCarthy, twice a former winner of the Cork event, claimed the best nett prize while Gary O’Flaherty, a popular local member, finished on 147 but was unable to celebrate his 40th birthday with the title.
Meanwhile Cormac Sharvin finished in a tie for second place in the prestigious Lytham Trophy at Royal Lytham and St Annes.
The former Irish champion from Ardglass posted a 72-hole total of 288 - eight strokes adrift of Sweden’s Marcus Kinhult.
Ballymena’s Dermot McElroy posted a 294 total to finish 10th equal while Gary Hurley was further back on 296,the same total as that of Portmarnock’s Geoff Lenehan.Barry Hume was on 3-1.
