O'Neill too hot to handle in the Grouville sunshine

GAVIN O'NEILL is the new Channel Islands champion. The Royal Jersey player beat Guernsey's former six-time winner Bobby Eggo at Grouville on Sunday when the Jerseyman sunk a birdie putt on the 13th hole of the afternoon session to seal a 7 and 5 victory.

The morning's session had also gone O'Neill's way, as he went one up at the second, holing a decent putt for a par three while Eggo went one over.

Although the Guernseyman was to win the short fourth in three, it was the only success he had leading up to the 17th, by which time O'Neill was four up, having won the fifth, tenth, 12th and 13th.

O'Neill's line and length on a fast-playing course were immaculate, while on more than one occasion Eggo strayed into the rough and, as he said afterwards: 'The course is tough if you hit the ball off the fairway, which I did too many times this morning.'

Even so, he gave O'Neill reason to have doubts over the lunchtime break by winning the last two holes of the morning, birdying the par-4 17th and 18th and clawing his way back into the match at just two down.

Sadly for Eggo, of the 13 holes they played after lunch, he won just one of them, the awkward 369-yard fifth.

By then O'Neill had re-asserted his dominance, going three up again on the first hole of the afternoon before both players parred the second, third and fourth of the second round in a scheduled 36-hole decider.

From the seventh hole after lunch, O'Neill took complete control of a match which saw the lithe Jerseyman hit straight and true on every hole he played.

He was also guiding the ball more accurately towards the flag and on the eighth went four up again when Eggo's 14ft putt passed inches wide of the cup while his, from eight feet, dropped in for a birdie two.

Both players settled for a par five on the 522-yard ninth before O'Neill pulled even further away on the next.

Another long putt gave him a birdie three compared to Eggo's four and although the next hole, the 378-yard 11th, was halved, O'Neill's brisk walk up the fairway contrasted markedly with Eggo's more laconic approach.

'Once I went four up, I knew I had control of the game,' O'Neill said. 'A good par on the seventh this afternoon and a birdie on the eighth gave me that: it gave me the lead I wanted. After that, I couldn't have asked for more and birdying three of the last four holes was a bonus.'

O'Neill's approach play on the last two was impeccable.

Firstly, it left him a three-and-a-half-foot putt to go six up on the 12th and the ball always destined to go into the heart of cup as soon as it left his putter.

And if that had delighted a 50-strong crowd, most of them keen to see the Jersey player win, they were even more entranced when he hit a stunning, flighted second at the 13th to leave him six feet from the pin.

Eggo's second had also found the green, but his ball was tucked up twice as far to the right of the hole and he had an awkward downhill putt if he was to take the match any further.

Again, his putt just drifted inches wide to the right. O'Neil''s, by contrast, went in.

The game was over and the Guernseyman, a finalist in this competition nine times in all, had been comprehensively beaten by the better golfer on the day for whom it was his first inter-insular final.

'The greens were good and I putted well,' said O'Neill, adding that the last time he had played Eggo had been when he was a 16-year-old junior. 'I beat him then,' he added, with a grin.

His next challenge is the English amateur championships in Lancashire on 26 July.

As for Eggo, he was graceful in defeat.

'He was excellent, I was never up for it. Even when I went in two down, having been four down by the 16th in the morning, I knew I was up against it. I've no excuses.'

His next major challenge will be in the Shetlands, where he is one of a four-strong team, including his brother, who will represent Guernsey. 'Looking at the draw, I think we've quite a good chance,' he said, before glancing up at the sky and adding, ruefully: 'I just hope that the weather up there will be as good as this.'