Brilliant caolan claims the East at last

After several near misses, Caolan Rafferty finally landed the Kingspan East of Ireland Championship when came from behind to take the title in Baltray.
 He beat Royal Dublin’s Max Kenny by one shot after shooting a seven under par 65 in the final round
Having opened with rounds of 71 and 69, Rafferty found himself three off the pace heading into the final two rounds on Bank Holiday Monday.
In the third round a bogey free round of 68, which included four birdies, saw him narrow the gap to leaders Jack McDonnell and Max Kennedy of Royal Dublin to just one shot heading into the afternoon’s final round.
Playing two groups ahead of McDonnell and one ahead of Kennedy, Rafferty had his foot on the accelerator from the start and birdied three of the first five holes before adding another at the seventh to turn on 12 under.
By this stage McDonnell had fallen back and Kennedy became the Dundalk man’s main challenger and the pair were tied on 12 under at the turn.
Rafferty kept the boot to the floor and more birdies followed at the 10th, 12th. 13th and 15th to take him to 16 under.
Standing on the 18th tee Rafferty led Kennedy by two shots after the Dubliner had back to back birdies on 15 and 16 to keep himself in contention.
Having gone 42 holes without a bogey, Rafferty looked set for victory but a wicked bounce saw his second shot end up in poor lie and he was unable to find the green with his approach to the par five final hole.
His putt from the fringe came up on short and he then missed a 10 foot putt for par to record what was only his third bogey of the tournament.
That left Kennedy needing a birdie to force a play-off but he missed his six foot putt and Rafferty finally claimed the East to add to his previous successes in the South of Ireland and West of Ireland championships.