Congratulations to Colin Walsh from Tullamore GC, who mastered the links at Royal Dublin last weekend to win the TopGolfer 2020 Matchplay series.

The series has been a rollercoaster for the organisers. Starting back in March 2020 with players playing their home / away Round 1 matches nationwide, the series should have been completed by November 2020 at La Finca Resort in Spain. But the pandemic hit and golf courses closed. Even with the stop / start delays, TopGolfer management and staff were committed to completing the series for competitors, which took 1.5 years in the end.

Colin’s impressive wins in the series were:

• v’s Jack Brown (Heritage) 7/5
• v’s John Whelan (Athenry) 1up
• v’s Thomas O’Leary (Borris) 5/3
• v’s Baden Maher (Killarney) 4/3
• v’s Victor Smyth (Castlecomer) 2/1
• v’s Stephen Cullen (Tulfarris) 3/2

It’s been quite a physical and emotional journey for Colin, which included undergoing a major operator in March 2020 that stopped him playing golf for many months. In fact, it was only July (a few weeks before the Final) before Colin was able to pick up a golf club to start with some practise.

In the Final at Royal Dublin, Colin played excellent golf on the front 9, shooting level par to be 2up at the turn. On the 10th it looked like that the lead would be cut to 1up, but Colin held his nerve and knocked in an extremely difficult 8-foot par putt. Stephen did manage to birdie the 12th to pull one back, but a steady run of regulation pars for Colin on the back 9 made it very difficult for Stephen.

Colin will now go forward to the TopGolfer Tour Championship at Druids Glen Resort on 10th October 2021.

Congrats to Colin - a worthy Champion.

The TG Team.