What a great result for Dylan Holmes and Greystones Golf Club this afternoon as Dylan became the youngest player to lift the Wicklow Boys trophy after four scintillating rounds of golf.
The tournament, which was sponsored once again this year by Wood Group Homes is the last remaining 72 hole, Under 18 strokeplay event on the golfing calendar and has been running for over thirty five years. Previous notable participants include Padraig Harrington and previous winners include Tour Professionals Peter Laurie and Keith Nolan and of course Greystones’ own Paul Dunne, who won the event twice. This year saw a strong field of over 60 players, representing 23 different clubs with 31 players off a handicap of 4 or less and 7 players between 0 and +2 handicap.
Dylan opened on day 1 with two excellent rounds of 68 leaving him on 2 under and seven shots ahead of Charlie Quinn (Castle Golf Club) and Sam Gammell (Naas) who both sat on +5 after their opening two rounds. Gavin Rochford (Bray) was one further back on +6 with Portmarnock’s Brandon St. John one shot further away on +7.
Round 3 this morning had Dylan tee it up alongside Charlie Quinn and Sam Gammell with Gavin Rochford in the group ahead and Brandon St. John in the third last three-ball. Dylan started with 4 bogeys and after his first birdie of the day on the par 5 ninth turned at +3, another bogey followed on the 10th and birdies on the 13th & 15th followed by a bogey on the par 3 16th (the hole that played most difficult on the day) saw him sign off for a three over par score of 72. A quadruple bogey on the par 5 15th for Charlie Quinn saw his hopes of winning the title slip away but a solid round of 70 from Brandon St. John and an excellent 68 from Gavin Rochford brought them back into the frame going into the forth and final round.
After the opening four holes of the final round, Dylan’s four shot lead had disappeared. Dylan was three over for his round while Gavin Rochford was one under and tied with Dylan for the lead. Brandon St. John had started with a flourish and was three under through the four. Consecutive birdies for Dylan on holes six, seven and eight however restored a buffer of five shots over Gavin and six over Brandon heading into the back nine.
At this stage there was a lot of pressure on the young Greystones player with the crowds following his match beginning to grow. Dylan bogeyed the 10th and 11th before hitting a glorious shot to three feet on twelve and holing the putt for birdie. Gavin’s back nine started double, treble, double and this put paid to his championship hopes. Showing maturity beyond his fourteen years, Dylan parred his way in from the 14th after a bogey on the 13th and a birdie, birdie finish from Brandon St. John proved too late with Dylan running out the championship winner by five shots. A fantastic achievement following on from his fourth place finish in the Ulster Under 16 Boys championship last week.
Special thanks go to Tom Byrne who has been running this event so efficiently for the past twenty years and to his team of Niall Byrne, Darragh Browne and Alan Keane.
