When Dublin amateur Richard Knightly won the Laytown & Bettystown Senior Scratch Cup at the links on Sunday it completed quite the turnaround in fortunes for the player, whose preparation for the day’s play could barely have got off to a worse start.
The Royal Dublin Golf Club player surely arrived at Laytown and Bettystown Golf Club fully focused on the task at hand – that is until he was forced to take a 7-iron to the window of his car after locking his keys inside! While that impromptu swing got the job done well enough, it was only a precursor for what was to come.
Having to take an iron to you own car would have left many fretting over the hassle and cost of fixing the damage, but there were no such issue for Knightly. Instead, he overcame tricky conditions to claim the title after edging out 2019 Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup star Caolan Rafferty in the third playoff hole.
Rafferty had seemed primed to claim victory on the first playoff hole, but Knightly held his nerve to hole an eight-foot putt to save par. The pair again matched each other on the next before, on the third playoff hole, Knightly finally took advantage to claim victory, confidently holing for birdie after Rafferty’s ten-foot birdie putt came up just short.
Birdie on third playoff hole for @RichardKnightly he’s your 2023 @LandBGolfClub senior scratch cup champion 🏆🏆🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/lfd6b4XmaMMarch 26, 2023
Knightly duly collected the trophy, then posed for a photo in front of the now less-than-pristine car before embarking on the no doubt satisfying, if somewhat breezy, drive home.
