GOLF NORTH OF IRELAND AMATEUR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP:ROYAL DUBLIN'S Seán Ryan is sampling championship golf for the first time this season, and making a right go it into the bargain. He is through to the last four in the Magners North of Ireland Amateur Open Championship, at Royal Portrush, and this morning plays favourite Alan Dunbar.

“I finished my degree at university and then went off to Australia for a while before returning this year. I never played in any of the championships before I left but I have done okay this year and getting to the semi-finals here is good,” said the 23-year-old scratch player.

In the third round yesterday, Ryan squeezed out James Monaghan (The Island) by one hole and then went to the 19th before eliminating Portmarnock’s James Fox, who holed a 40-footer for a half in par at 18 to send the tussle into extra time. Ryan’s 25-foot putt for birdie finished four feet away – a steel-nerved finish.

At the 19th, the winner, who reached the last 16 in the Irish Close, got down from 12 feet for a winning birdie after a three wood and seven-iron to the green. There was never more than two holes in the match and when Ryan was forced to concede the 17th, after being in the bushes at the back of the green, it was all square.

“I watched Alan (Dunbar) playing in the Irish Amateur Open and he is a very good player. He will have massive local support here tomorrow but I will just have to do what I can,” reflected Ryan.

Dunbar had to play three extra holes in the third round before getting past Co Sligo’s Barry Anderson. He missed from 12 feet at 17 and 18 and six feet at 19 before getting away with a half in bogey at 20 where he put a ball out-of-bounds.

“I thought that I was a goner but Barry ribbed his shot out off a bunker, that saved me. I had only ten minutes break between my two matches,” recalled Dunbar.

In the quarter-finals he was two down to surprise packet Jonathan Feenan after five holes but then won the next five in a row, going par-par-birdie-birdie-birdie to leap three up. He was dormie four after Calamity Corner and ended the match with a half at the 15th.

The other semi-final will feature Connor Doran (Banbridge) and Dermot McElroy (Ballymena), with Doran putting in a storming finish to beat Alan Kearney on the home green. The winner was two down with four to play but hit a hat-trick of birdies to go one up and almost made it four-in-a-row as his 15-footer at 18 was less than a foot away, with Kearney 10 feet past in three blows.

Teenager McElroy dismissed leading qualifier Gerard Kelly (Co Louth) by two holes.