Malone’s Matt McClean sensationally ended his main drought when he held off a late fightback from Royal Dublin’s Hugh Foley to win the 36-hole US Mid-Newbie Championship closing 3&1 and clinch dream begins within the Masters and the US Open subsequent yr.
Two-up by means of the primary 18 holes on Friday, the Belfast optometrist (29) raced 5-up with simply six holes to play with a superb show of golf at Erin Hills in Wisconsin earlier than Foley fought again to 2 down with three to play earlier than falling on the seventeenth.
“Yeah, implausible,” McClean stated, revealing he feared the worst when Foley birdied the thirteenth, 14th and fifteenth to chop his result in simply 2-up. “Form of most likely hasn’t sunk in simply but. It’s been a really lengthy week, however I’m certain as soon as we form of sit down this night, it’ll form of sink in a wee bit extra, however yeah, it’s unbelievable actually.
“It was powerful. I feel the birdie on 12 that I made (to go 5-up with six to play) felt prefer it was form of a giant gap, after which the shot he hit into 13 was unbelievable. 14, he performed excellent; 15, he performed excellent. Then he hit one straight down the pin on 16, as effectively, and I assumed, it’s going to be one other one.
“So it was onerous to form of cling in there, however I didn’t actually do an enormous quantity mistaken, so I simply form of felt if I stored on doing what I used to be doing, hopefully he wouldn’t birdie the final six holes towards me. That was the plan, and fortunately it form of simply labored out ultimately there.”
McClean will obtain the normal invitation to the Masters at Augusta Nationwide from April 6-9 and the US Open on the Los Angeles Nation Membership from June 15–18.
“I feel it most likely hasn’t fairly sunk in but,” McClean stated. “It’s going to take a wee little bit of time, I feel there’s going to be a very good few Irish gamers in it subsequent yr, so can’t wait to form of get an invitation to affix it."