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Mortimer soars like an eagle

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Date Published: 29-Sep-2010

Dara Bradley

 “GIVE it a go,” was the last thing David Mortimer’s caddie said to the Renvyle golfer before he struck an audacious 40-foot putt for eagle on the par-five 18th at Seapoint, beating European Tour star Damien McGrane to win the Ladbrokes.com Irish GPA Championship by one stroke at the weekend.

And that’s exactly what he did producing a spectacular par three in a dramatic finale to earn his second Irish GPA title. Both men entered the last hole nine under but it was advantage McGrane when he almost landed an eagle with a fantastic 100-foot chip, which caught the edge of the cup and bounced out.

McGrane settled for a birdie. Mortimer didn’t. He wasn’t going for the easy option; wasn’t going to just settle for a playoff.“I was saying all week that I wanted to get in contention and give myself a chance to do it,” Mortimer told Tribune Sport this week.

“Then the chance came. I’d it in my mind to lay it up (and go for birdie) but when I saw what he did, my caddie said ‘this is what you wanted; give it a go’. McGrane hit a great effort (for eagle) but it just caught the edge of the hole. The last thing that came into my mind was to just give it a go. I was 40 feet out, just a foot short of the fringe of the green.

“As soon as I hit it I knew it had the right pace but wasn’t sure it had the right line. As it was getting closer I said ‘this has got a chance’; at about two-feet away I thought ‘this has got a great chance’ and thankfully it went in. You’d always expect it might get a kick or a bounce but thankfully it didn’t.

“I’d a bit of form going into the tournament (having won the British equivalent the previous month) so I thought if I gave it a go that I’d have a chance. I knew that you either step up to the plate or you don’t. I knew I wouldn’t be afraid to win it – I wasn’t afraid of him (McGrane). I knew if I got a chance I’d snap his hand off to win it,” he said.

Queue the wild celebrations as the six-foot four-inch man jumped around the green with hundreds of spectators cheering. “I was thinking ‘I’m flapping around like a whale’ but it was such a good battle all day that the big emotions came out. There were a lot of people jumping up and down. I thought going out there that a lot of people would be shouting for Damien and egging him on but as the day went on they were roaring for me. It was a nice one to win all right,” said Mortimer.

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