Jake Whelan is no longer the quiet man of Irish golf after he birdied the last two holes to claim a one-shot win in the Mullingar Scratch Trophy and announce his candidacy for a place on the Irish team.

Thirty years after Paul McGinley etched his name on the famous silver cup, the Grange man (26) followed in the Dubliner’s famous footsteps when he closed with a four-under 68 to pip County Sligo’s TJ Ford by the slimmest of margins on 15-under par.

“I am delighted to get over the line,” said Whelan (26), who is also a long-time member of Newlands. 

“It’s been a long wait. TJ played great golf coming in and it wasn’t looking great down the last few holes but I rode my luck, putted great and made some birdies at the right time.”

The final day of the 59th staging of the classic 72-hole event, sponsored this year by Sherry Fitzgerald Davitt & Davitt and Pinergy, was a brilliant advertisement for amateur golf.

Three strokes behind South of Ireland champion Ford after 36 holes, Whelan birdied three of his last five holes in the morning to lead by one from the Rosses Point man and by two from Enniscorthy’s Paul Conroy on 11-under after a super 68.

He birdied the third and sixth to remain in front, but then made “sloppy” bogeys at the seventh and eighth to leave the leading trio tied on 11-under with nine to play.

Two holes later he was three clear as he rolled in an 18-footer at the 10th, then made an outrageous birdie at the 11th after flighting a 190-yard five-iron under a branch from the left rough into the heart of the green before rolling in a 40-footer.

Ford made bogey and Conroy three-putted for a double-bogey en route to a 71 that left him third alongside Galway’s Liam Nolan on 10-under.

The in-form Ford then stormed in front, rapping in four birdies in a row from the 13th to lead by a shot with two holes to go.

But Whelan, who had endured recent semi-final defeats in the Irish Close (2016), the West (2017) and the South (2019), refused to lie down.

When Ford missed the 17th green and bogeyed, he rolled in a 20-footer to go one ahead, then split the 18th fairway and after seeing Ford’s second from a fairway bunker rebound to safety from the water hazard, he badly hooked a 190-yard five-iron onto the back of the third green but played a sensational recovery to six feet and rolled in the birdie putt for victory.