A fruitful professional career beckons for Athlone's Colm Moriarty. Yesterday, the 22 year old came from three shots behind overnight leader Noel Fox to win the weather-reduced Friends First Mullingar Scratch Trophy by five strokes with a 19 under par total of 197 thanks to an impeccable final round of 63, nine under par.

But the manner of his victory ­ five straight birdies to finish ­ would suggest that Moriarty is a man who could well flourish with card and pencil in hand in the immediate future.

With the third round abandoned due to heavy rain, the event was reduced to 54 holes with a shotgun start and when the gun went it was the midlander who proved to be the quickest out of the blocks. Starting at the first, Moriarty drained a 20 foot birdie putt and then drew level with the Fox at the par three second after the Portmarnock man had pushed his tee shot right into trees and failed to find the putting surface in two.

Afterwards Moriarty explained that his game plan had been to attack Fox early on, calculating that a six under par 66 would be enough to win the title. But in the end he exceed his own expectations as Fox could do no better than a one under par 71 to finish on 14 under par.

Moriarty didn't have to hole anything longer than a three footer to card further birdies at the fourth, sixth and ninth in an outward nine of 31, four under par. That put him two shots clear of Fox and five clear of the other member of the final threeball, Hermitage's Stephen Browne who eventually slumped to a final round 75 to finish 12 shots back.

By this stage Fox was mentally drained by the exertions of his record breaking 60 in the second round on Sunday, and although he got to within two shots of the lead back with a birdie three at the 11th, he couldn't match the Athlone man when he moved up a gear coming down the stretch.

After dropping a stroke at the short 12th to fall two shots behind again, the trophy started to elude Fox's grasp when Moriarty rifled a six iron to 10 feet for a birdie two at 15th to move to three ahead.

After pitching stone dead at the 16th to set up his seventh birdie of the day, Moriarty holed from 15 feet at the 17th and then got up and down from next to the bunker that guards the front of the 18th green for a sensational 63.

He said afterwards: "Winning here is a special feeling. I tried putting pressure on Noel (Fox) early on because I knew it would be tough for him after his 60. My short game was very sharp and I have improved my putting after some lessons from Harold Swash. I have been very consistent in strokeplay this year and finished eighth in the Lytham Trophy and won the Athlone Scratch Cup as well but this is the highlight."

Moriarty plans to take his first steps towards a career on the European Tour when he tees it up in the first stage of the Qualifying School (PQ1) in England in September. But before that he plans to play for Connaught in next week's Interprovincial Championships in Killarney before heading for Odense, Denmark and the European Individual Championships from August 22 ­ 25.

MULLINGAR FRIENDS FIRST SCRATCH TROPHY at MULLINGAR GOLF CLUB

197 C Moriarty (Athlone) 68 66 63

202 N Fox (Portmarnock) 71 60 71

208 M Campbell (U.C.D./Stackstown) 73 67 68, G Bohill (Co. Louth) 71 69 68

209 S Browne (Hermitage) 68 66 75, J Foster (Ballyclare) 67 68 74

210 J Morris (Mullingar) 68 69 73

211 R Kilpatrick (Banbridge) 70 69 72, T Rice (Limerick) 65 78 68

212 S McTernan (Co. Sligo) 71 69 72, N Goulding (Portmarnock) 70 72 70, E O'Sullivan (Island) 69 68 75

213 D Morgan (Mullingar) 70 72 71, D Kelleher (Portmarnock) 69 69 75

214 P Dooley (Cork) 70 68 76, D Sugrue (Killarney) 69 75 70, P Wallace (Mullingar) 68 72 74

215 A Morris (Belvoir Park) 73 68 74, P McDonald (Woodbrook) 70 72 73, G Hall (Edenderry) 70 71 74

216 S Irving (Howth) 70 71 75, A Morrow (Portmarnock) 69 71 76

217 J Mulready (Castle) 74 73 70, G Cullen (Beaverstown) 73 70 74, G McNeill (Waterford) 72 72 73, A Dowling (Hermitage) 72 70 75, N Gorey (Killeen) 71 71 75

218 J McGinn (Greenore) 75 69 74, M McDermott (Stackstown) 74 66 78, G Massey (Hermitage) 72 70 76 219 R Leonard (Banbridge) 76 70 73, M Rowe (Athlone) 73 75 71, M Barrett (Mitchelstown) 73 73 73, B Hobson (Shandon Park) 72 71 76

220 R Flood (Hermitage) 75 73 72, R De Lacy Staunton (Hong Kong) 73 72 75, J Lyons (Birr) 72 74 74 221 P Byrne (Sutton) 77 70 74, C Conaty (Ashbourne) 73 73 75, M Brett (Portmarnock) 73 71 77

223 C Cunningham (Mullingar) 73 71 79, R Elliot (Royal Portrush) 72 74 77

224 M Staunton (Ballinasloe) 77 71 76, C Cassidy (Portmarnock) 72 74 78 225 B McCarthy (Spanish Federation) 75 73 77, F O'Donoghue (Belvoir Park) 73 75 77

226 O Barton (Ballinasloe) 73 73 80

NR D O'Sullivan (Limerick) 81 NR

RT M Horan (Birr) RT, R Cannon (Balbriggan) 74 RT, P Errity (Delgany) 72 74 RT, C Donovan (Killeen) 71 75 RT, R Fitzgerald (Tramore) 73 75 RT, J Mitchell (Tramore) 75 70 RT

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© Brian Keogh 2001

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