Rachel Thompson won the Connacht Senior Championship in Westport today, going under par to hold her overnight lead and claim her first senior championship.  It was an impressive win, underlined by the winning margin of 11 strokes.

After opening with a six over par 80 yesterday, Thompson found herself just three shots off the lead as everyone struggled to get to grips with the course.  The Cork Golf Club member did just that in the second round on Thursday afternoon, shooting three under to jump up the leaderboard.  Rachel carded five birdies and two bogies to lead the field by five shots and take the overnight lead.

Thompson opened her third round this morning in the same fashion as the previous two – with a birdie.  However it was a mixed opening nine with just two pars.  Two more birdies and four bogies meant that she went out in one over par.  Thompson didn’t put a foot wrong on the way back.  Seven pars and two birdies saw her finish the 18 holes in red for the second successive day.  Starting the competition from a scratch handicap, cuts of 0.4 and 0.3 will see her move to the plus handicap range.  Thompson spent the past year in Scotland where she was in college in the University of Stirling.

Valerie Clancy finished in fourth place, the North Cork resident closed with a disappointing 82 after she was still in touching distance of the leader after 36 holes.
Clodagh Coughlan from Douglas continued her good form, she finished in sixth place.  Roisin Connolly (Youghal) was the only other Cork competitor to travel to Westport and she finished in 30th place.