With his blond, cropped hair shining in the afternoon sun, Mikko Ilonen saluted cheering, Finnish colleagues behind the 16th green yesterday, after capturing the West of Ireland title at Enniscrone. He had gained the distinction of becoming the first continental European winner of an Irish amateur golf title.
Ilonen, who is here as a member of a five-person Finnish group to sharpen his skills over links terrain, confidently outplayed Rory Leonard of Banbridge by 4 and 2 in a one-sided final. And a measure of his overall dominance through the match-play stage was that he played the 17th hole only once - in the quarter-finals against Jody Fanagan.
"I am very pleased with this, my first victory outside Finland," said the 19-year-old, who hails from Lahti, 100 kilometres north of Hensinki. Then he added with a smile: "You know my name, Ilonen, means `happy' in Finnish. That is the way I feel."
He was not alone. His colleagues and their head of coaching, Juha Juvonen, were suitably enthusiastic at delivering this dividend for an investment of £2,000 per player on the six-week Irish leg of their European campaign.
Before arriving here, Ilonen was in Spain in March, when he was runner-up in the Spanish Amateur Open, and in France last month. His next assignment is the Brabazon Trophy at Moortown on May 14th to 16th while colleagues are competing in the Irish Open Stroke-play at Royal Dublin.
Whatever his preparation, however, Ilonen's achievement is quite remarkable for a country of only 90 courses and about 60,000 players - 40,000 of them men. This compares with 220,000 male members of the GUI, playing out of 390 clubs.
After he had beaten Eddie Power and Fanagan on Tuesday, Ilonen's 3 and 2 semi-final win over compatriot Henri Salonen yesterday morning was no more than expected. This was especially so when he started with two birdies as a fresh wind swept down the links, helping the players on the outward journey.
But it came as something of a surprise when Leonard emerged from the opening semi-final against Gary Cullen. Given the quality of of their man's play in Tuesday's quarter-finals, Beaverstown officials were entitled to feel confident when they travelled west early yesterday morning.
However, the 23-year-old Ulsterman, who was a youth international colleague of Cullen's, took what proved to be a decisive lead when he birdied the short eighth and then chipped in for another birdie at the ninth, to be two up at the turn. And by way of defending that lead, he got up and down for pars at the 14th, 15th and 16th.
Ilonen, 6ft. 3in. with an athletic build to match, looked a formidable figure as he stood on the first tee for the final, in a black wind-cheater and wearing wraparound sunglasses under a baseball cap. By comparison, the well-rounded Leonard was decidedly casual in a light green sweatshirt.
The match seemed finely balanced when Leonard won the long fourth with a birdie to go one up. But Ilonen's competitive instincts were quickly in evidence when he responded by winning the next three in a row.
His wins on the sixth and seventh were characterised by long, straight driving and delicate wedge play, whereas Leonard was decidedly wayward off the tee and indecisive with his approaches. Still, he was clearly prepared to fight, as reflected in a glorious seven-iron to the 170-yard eighth, where he holed an eight-footer for a winning birdie.
But the Ulsterman couldn't get level. Indeed Ilonen seemed more likely to stretch his lead when a return chip at the 11th came to rest four feet beyond the pin, before he missed the par putt. As it happened, his most crucial win came at the next.
Into the wind down the long 12th, there was a hint of desperation in Leonard's decision to take a driver off the fairway, knowing that he couldn't reach the green in two. In the event, he pushed the shot way right and was bunkered in three.
The Finn, meanwhile, played a superb, 60-yard pitch to six feet and proceeded to sink the putt for a winning birdie. And one suspected that the two-hole gap had much to do with Leonard's pulled six-iron out of bounds at the short 13th. Then the gap became four holes after the 14th where Leonard missed from three feet.
One sensed it would be only a brief respite when the Finn ran up a bogey at the next to lose to a par. And so it proved to be, as Leonard drove into rough at the 16th and was wide of the green in two, whereas his opponent was safely on the back of the green in regulation.
We will hear a lot more of Ilonen, who has yet to finish high school after which he must serve one year's military service. "I will turn professional, but probably not for another four or five years," he said. In the meantime, he and his colleagues have signed an agreement with their federation, to remain amateurs until after the Eisenhower Trophy next year.
Meanwhile, at the presentation ceremony, it was nice to note that while allowing a coveted trophy to go for export, western officials retained their sense of humour. Introducing the new champion, Connacht Branch chairman Michael O'Donoghue said: "Anois, beig cupla focal againn o Mikko as Finland." Which he got, of course, as bearla.
