Banagher native wins national title in Strandhill

Banagher native Joe Lyons claimed his first ever national individual title when he took home the Irish Senior Men’s Amateur Close Championship at Strandhill last Friday.

A member of Galway Golf Club, Lyons battled hard in the morning to cement his place in the decider and then he beat local competitor Serryth Heavey (County Sligo), comprehensively 5&4 in the final.

Lyons was thrilled to finally get over the line, on the back of some impressive form earlier this year in the Irish Senior Men’s Amateur Open and the European Seniors Amateur Open.

“It feels great, it’s the first national title at an individual level that I’ve ever won,” said the Offaly native.

“I’ve been relatively successful down through the years and won lots of nice things but I have never won a national title.

“Out of all of the rounds this week, I didn’t putt particularly well this morning but when it came down to the crunch, I felt very comfortable standing over the putt on 18 in the semi-final.

“That was a difficult game, Pat (Madigan) really put it up to me and particularly the last two holes. He was two down with two to play and had an unbelievable up and down on 17. 18 was playing really tricky and he was more or less stone dead in three, so it was nice to get it up and down from the back of 18 and hole that ten-footer to avoid going down 19,” Lyons continued.

Heavey was the first golfer through to the senior men’s final, and he beat Derek Basquill (Enniscrone) 4&3 in the Sligo derby during the blustery morning conditions. Lyons joined him later after he holed a big putt to beat Patrick Madigan (Tramore) on the 18th green.