Not unknown to break into a bar or two of a song, Stephen Browne is edging ever closer to keeping a promise - or a threat - to sing a duet of The Lily of Killarney with his dad and caddie, the tenor Edmund Browne. Yesterday, as more shocks resounded around the Killeen course in the Bank of Ireland-sponsored Irish Amateur Close Championship, the 25-year-old Dubliner was responsible for one of them as he ended the reign of defending champion Eddie Power.
So far the lesson in the championship has been to expect the unexpected. More of the so-called "big guns" exited the championship yesterday, some tamer than others, and it all contrived to leave a rather unlikely quartet to contest this morning's semi-finals with Browne being joined by Michael Sinclair, Ciaran McMonagle and Brian Smyth. A new name will therefore be etched onto the national trophy. Apart from Power, a three-time winner, others to bow out included Paddy Gribben, the European Amateur champion, and Kenneth Kearney, the recently-crowned East of Ireland champion, as well as former Walker Cup player Garth McGimpsey.
And yet the four semi-finalists all produced good golf in difficult windy conditions. Browne, a Leinster inter-provincial, was level-par in forging out a 2 and 1 quarterfinal win over Power. It was a ding-dong tussle, and Browne pinpointed his winning par at the 12th, where Power three-putted, as a key moment. The Hermitage player, who had been trailing for much of the match, went level then - and again showed his character with a superb sand save at the next.
However, Browne only edged in front at the 16th when Power uncharacteristically missed the fairway when laying up with an iron. He then, out of rough, pushed his approach behind trees. He failed to get up and down, and that bogey enabled Browne to take a one hole lead. Then, on the 17th, Power's approach kicked left into the green-side bunker while Browne - "that must be the toughest shot in the country," he exclaimed - flicked a wedge shot to the elevated green and two-putted for victory.
Browne's semi-final opponent will be Sinclair, winner of the North of Ireland title two years ago. On that occasion he beat McGimpsey in the final, and yesterday the Knock player maintained his good track record against McGimpsey by recording a 4 and 3 win over the Bangor player. Sinclair was one under par for the 15 holes he needed, a birdie and 14 pars bearing adequate testimony to his consistency.
McMonagle, meanwhile, was rewarded for his perseverance in ousting Gribben, although the 23-year-old Dunfanaghy player required a birdie at the 19th to win. "I just hung in there all day," explained McMonagle, a player who has represented Ireland at every level of golf from boys to senior.
He lost the 11th to a birdie and didn't manage to level until the 18th when Gribben played a poor approach into a bunker and then failed to make the required sand save. At the first extra hole, McMonagle hit a superb drive and then pitched a sand wedge to 10 feet and sank the putt to set up a semi-final with complete surprise packet Smyth.
Earlier in the day, Smyth made four birdies in the opening seven holes of his third round match against Kearney and, later, was a comfortable 5 and 4 winner over Gavin McNeill in the quarter-final.
