Gareth Walsh - Absolute love of the game
Gareth Walsh was in upbeat mood when he spoke to fippa.org about his win with Evan Carry in the Catalan International pairs at Sant Cebria.
How did the partnership with Evan Carry come about?
This year was the second year myself and Evan played together in the pairs. We would play together quite a bit at the weekends during the off season. Last year he was originally supposed to play with someone else who was then unable to play coming up to the competition so he asked if I fancied going and I went over on short notice. We came 6th last year and enjoyed playing together so said we would go again this year.
Had you played Sant Cebria before?
I played last year with Evan in the pairs and we played a couple of practice rounds in the lead up to the tournament that week.
Which was the better round – 43 in Greensomes or 48 in straight Foursomes?
It’s hard to say which round was better as they were both brilliant rounds, Both rounds included a hole in 1, The 4th in the Scotch by myself and then the 10th in the foursomes by Evan. I suppose the 48 might be that little bit better as it’s a tough format where there is no room for error with every shot played being used.
Five strokes ahead overnight, what was the plan for Sunday?
Five strokes was a big lead but we knew with the quality of the field behind us the job wasn’t done yet, Especially with the Fourball format we know it is possible to post a really low score. We didn’t really set a score or worry about scores. Our thought process was mainly to continue our form from the Saturday and the score would look after itself.
Josep Iglesias and Amador Rodriguez are two ultra-experienced performers. How difficult did they make it for you?
The play in the final round from Josep and Amador was incredible. To go out in the last 18 holes 5 shots behind was always going to be tough to claw back but they had a right go at it shooting a super 43, which was the (joint) lowest score of the day. They went on a run from 8 to 14 where they birdied all 7 holes. They had a putt on the 15th to go 1 behind and if they got that it could have been very different.
Were there any crisis points in the final round?
No, We both settled really early in the round with Evan getting the birdie on 1 and me getting the birdie on 2. We had a plan that we would finish out putts for par to give each other a free go at the birdie chances without having to worry about the putt back for par and that worked really well for us.
World Strokeplay championship and Catalan International Pairs. You must be developing a taste for the international form of Pitch and Putt?
Yes, within the last year I’ve played the pairs in Sant Cebria twice and the World Strokeplay in Vigo. I absolutely love the game, I spend every weekend travelling around the country playing scratch cups, opens and championships so when the opportunity comes up to travel to the international events it’s great to get a break away to play in good weather as we don’t always get a lot of that at home!
You must have found the level of support from the Irish in Spain a great help?
Yes, the support for us was incredible, We had crowds following us the whole way around cheering us on and applauding our good shots and even encouraging us when we didn’t hit our best shots which is a big help. There’s a great togetherness with all the Irish over there.
What’s next in Pitch and Putt for Gareth Walsh?
Well with the season coming to a close it was a great finish to what I would have classed as a poor season personally, So hopefully this will give me a confidence boost and I can kick on next year. The main thing for me really is to gain more consistency within my game and hopefully I can be competing at the top level more.
