Sarah Helly beats favourite Olivia Mehaffey

 6 and 5 in Irish women's final

United States college student  Sarah Helly (Enniscrone), the No 2 seed, beat top seed and title favourite 17-year-old Olivia Mehaffey (Royal Co Down Ladies by the comprehensive margin of 6 and 5 in this afternoon's 18-hole final of the Irish women's closed amateur championship at the Rosapenna Golf Club links.
Mehaffey's performance in reaching the semi-finals of the recent British women's open amateur championship at Portstewart brought her down from 114th to 59th in the Women's World Amateur Rankings.
Helly is  No. 582 in the WWAR.

Sarah rolled in a birdie putt at the sixth to take a one-hole lead - a lead she never lost. By the turn Helly was three up.

A 20 footer for birdie on the 11^th and trouble for Olivia on the 12^th meant Sarah took a five-hole lead playing the par 4 13^th. The Enniscrone player made it look easy as she rolled in a five footer for birdie on the 13^th to be crowned Irish Close Champion.

Sarah Helly is a past Irish girls international and has always been an avid golfer. She has spent the last two years at Marshall University, West Virginia on a golf scholarship. 

The 2014-15 US college golf season just ended was her most successful as she secured six top 20 finishes and improved her stroke average by five shots. She shot a career-low round of 70 at Kiawah Island in March.
 Sarah is a member of the team selected to represent Ireland at the 28^th World University Games in South Korea next month along side Jessica Ross (Donaghadee) and Sinead Sexton (Lahinch).
Helly, who will be 23 next Tuesday, was a final-year student at Marshall University in 2014-2015, having transferred there from a smaller college two years ago.

Mehaffey, a member of the ILGU High Performance Panel, will be disappointed to lose out in the final but she has already been crowned 2015 Irish Girls, Welsh Ladies and Scottish Ladies Champion. Olivia will now turn her attention to the Vagliano Trophy at Malone Golf Club on Friday and Saturday this week.#

Olivia, who reached the semi-finals of the "British" at Portstewart a week or two ago, is a member of the GB and I team who take on the Continent of Europe.

Mehaffey will enrol at Arizona State University in August. 

It's enough to make Old Tom Morris turn in his grave ... new Irish women's amateur champion Sarah Helly on the statue of the famous Scot who designed the Rosapenna links. Picture from the Irish Ladies Golf Union website.