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Golf

Paul Dunne lifts the lid on how he achieved that maiden European Tour victory

Sunday would prove to be a landmark day for one of Ireland's up and coming golfers. Paul Dunne tu...



Paul Dunne lifts the lid on ho...
Golf

Paul Dunne lifts the lid on how he achieved that maiden European Tour victory

Sunday would prove to be a landmark day for one of Ireland's up and coming golfers.

Paul Dunne turned pro in late 2015 and almost two years on, has earned his first tournament victory on the European Tour as he triumphed at the British Masters, seeing off the challenge of Rory McIlroy to seal the win.  

The Greystones based golfer, who had first come to the golfing world's attention in 2015, when he challenged for a major title as an amateur at the Open Championship at St Andrews joined Joe to talk about a potentially career-changing win which has propelled him into the Top 100.  

Paul Dunne lifts the lid on how he achieved that maiden European Tour victory

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"It was a good week to do it because there were lots of world ranking points available. We'd a couple of players in the Top 10 in the world and lots of Top 50 players so the world ranking points were there last week, so that's a big bonus for me to jump into the Top 100," he said.

Dunne, who discussed the improvements he has made to his golf game, also shared an insight into when he realised this tournament could be there for the taking after learning from falling short at the Hassan II Trophy. 

"It just helps you to learn about yourself really and what makes yourself tick and what mindset you need to be in to play your best when you know that it matters most, so I think it was definitely something that built up over time," he explained.

"And I got more and more confident in myself that when I found myself in that position again, I'd be ready to win. But I think it was more in the morning. The morning I just told myself, I need to get off to a quick start and get my nose in front and once I'm in front, just keep putting the foot down and not let anybody else get close enough to catch me."  

Fellow Irish golfer Shane Lowry summed the tension up best. 

"Shane said it to me best. Shane Lowry was going to give me a lift up to St Andrews afterwards. He said he'd said to his caddie when he saw me three ahead with five to play that, 'This is either going to be the best car journey ever or it's going to be like a morgue going up.'"

And as a result of holding on for the win, the car journey was "pretty nice" and later, he, Lowry and Padraig Harrington celebrated his victory together with caddies.

"I'm very lucky the guys would support me like that," he said.  

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