He might have passed away six years ago, but the late Laytown and Bettystown professional Bobby Browne was in the thoughts of his former pupils as Carol Wickham defeated Deirdre Smith to claim the Irish Senior Women’s Close title at Westport.

Having been beaten in the final on two previous occasions, the former Laytown and Bettystown international beat Longford native and County Louth star Deirdre Smith 3&2 in the final at the venue where she lost to Mary McKenna in the 1989 Irish Women’s Close decider.

With qualifying rounds of 79 and 78, Wickham knocked out Shirley Real, Fionnuala Halpin and Gertie McMullen on her way to the final, where she met leading qualifier Smith.

“I am absolutely relieved to have finally won the championship,” Wickham said following her win. “I’ve been trying a long time and to come out in the final against Deirdre and to win was just great.

“I was beaten in the Irish Women’s Close Final here back in 1989 by Mary McKenna on the 19th, I was 2 up with as many holes to play, so I was thinking it was a bit of a nemesis coming when Deirdre began making a bit of a comeback, but thankfully I got over that memory.”

Smith won all of her previous matches 5&4, but while the title favourite birdied the 15th to extend the match, Wickham closed her out on the 16th green.

Hailing from neighbouring clubs, both Smith and Wickham were students of the renowned teaching professional Browne, who passed away in 2015

“She’s a great competitor, Deirdre, all the competitors were great throughout all of my matches, all were very sporting,” Wickham said. “Before we teed off in the final, Deirdre said, ’Wouldn’t Bobby Browne be proud of the two of us?’, and I just thought that was a lovely thing to think about going out there.”

Smith led the qualifiers by two strokes from McMullen on three-over after rounds of 77 and 74 before cruising through the draw with 5&4 wins over County Louth’s Oonagh Purfield-Goulding, Woodbrook’s Clodagh Hopkins and Belvoir Park’s Gail Linter.

Linter, a former hockey international, pulled off the upset of the week when she beat four-time champion Suzanne Corcoran from Portumna by one hole in the quarter-finals.

In the Plate, Muskerry’s Siobhan O’Herlihy beat Royal County Down Ladies’ Kate Evans in the semi-finals before defeating The Heath’s Catherine Reilly, a semi-final winner over Ann Moynihan-Ruddy, in the decider.