Jack's the Lad! Doherty wins

£10,000 prize at Faithlegg

By ANTHONY LEAVER
Scot Jack Doherty held his nerve in the home straight to complete a one-stroke win with a nine-under-par total of 207 in the PGA EuroPro Tour’s Green17 Faithlegg Championship in south-east Ireland today.
The North Gailes pro, pictured right, was one of five players two strokes behind leading duo Kieran Staunton (Woodcote Park) and Scott Jamieson going into Friday’s final round, but as the leading pair slipped up, Doherty the Elder - his younger brother Paul also plays on the circuit - capitalised with a final round of 69 to follow his level par opening round and a fantastic 66 in the second round to claim the £10,000 winner’s cheque.
The 27 year-old’s victory is all the more impressive, given the number of players who put him under pressure in the closing stages.

Doherty always looked in good shape after shaking off a bogey at the first with birdies at the seventh, tenth, 11th and 13th before keeping his cool with pars to the finish – but nothing was ever certain on a day where so many players were in contention.
George Woolgar (Capitalservices.com) flew out of the blocks with three birdies to move to eight under, and birdies at the tenth and 11th saw him touch ten under for the tournament. He was unable to press home his advantage though, dropping those two shots straight away with bogeys at 12 and 13.

Although Woolgar picked up his 12th birdie of the tournament at the 14th he ruled himself out with a bogey-bogey finish to end two under for the day, seven under for the tournament (209) leaving him to ponder what might have been in third place.
Woolgar’s lapse seemed to open the door for Andrew Thorpe (Peterborough Milton) who recorded three birdies from the 13th to move to eight under – but Thorpe couldn’t grab another birdie in the closing three holes and finished at eight under (208) for the tournament, one shot behind Doherty in second.
Steve Surry (Cumberwell Park) was tied in second spot overnight and was cut from 6/1 to 5/1 when Sky Bet released their final round prices. Had it not been for a quadruple bogey 8 on the fourth, Surry could’ve finished much higher than the fourth spot he shared with Paul Dwyer (Clitheroe), Anthony Tarchetti (Princes), James Busby (The Shropshire) and James Hepworth (Ilkley GC). The latter recorded the lowest round of the day – 68 – along with Ian Ridgway (Regency Factors) and Adam Constable (Cardiff GC).
Constable was joined in ninth spot by Paul O’Hanlon (Curragh) and overnight leader Staunton who shot a 75.

Fellow final round leader Jamieson from Glasgow recorded six bogeys on the back nine to shoot 77 and finish tied in 19th spot
Ridgway’s final round saw him finish in a cluster of seven players in 12th spot, including Lothians man Elliot Saltman (Aegon) and New Zealander James Gill.
The next event on the PGA EuroPro Tour takes place at Prince’s Golf Club in Kent on June 9-12. Full scores from the Green17 Faithlegg Championship are available at http://www.europrotour.com/ via the Score Updates link on the homepage.

***The Michael Ward UK Open was the first event on the 2009 PGA EuroPro Tour at Collingtree Park and is on Sky Sports 3 next Wednesday 20 May at 8am, 2pm, 8pm and midnight. The following Wednesday ( May 27) sees the Green17 Faithlegg Championship on Sky Sports 3 at noon and midnight and on Sky Sports Xtra at 2pm and 8pm.