The 2011 West of Ireland Amateur Open Championship took place from Friday April 22nd to Tuesday April 26th over the Rosses Point Championship Golf Links at County Sligo Golf Club.

County Sligo Golf Club is also the venue for the 2011 GUI Inter Provincial Championships and the Senior Home Internationals.

UCD had a number of current UCD student participating including Stephen Walsh, Gerry Kelly, Daniel Holland. Unfortunately Kelly (80,76) and Holland (78,77) failed to make the cut for top 64 on Saturday but Scholarship Student, Stephne Walsh qualified with rounds of 76 and 71.

Stephen met William Hanna (Kilkeel) in round one on Sunday winning by 1 hole. Round 2 saw Walsh in a tight match up with Lucans Richard O’Donovan with Walsh coming out on top 2/1. Now down to the last 16, Stephen met in an equally tight match with Colin Fairweather (Knock) to win on the 19th. In the quarter finals, the only Dublin competitor left, Rathmores Alan Dunbar was to be a tough challenge. Walsh put in a fantastic performance but Dunbar still had too much firepower for the UCD scholarship student, winning 3 and 2 with a solid back nine performance.

Dunbar won the St Andrews Links Trophy in 2009 and holds the Irish Amateur Open and North of Ireland titles. He went on to show astonishing mastery on the links during 4 and 3 semi-final victory over Muskerry’s Niall Gorey, and was widely fancied for the decider. However Dunbar went on to miss out on a 4 and 2 victory over his fellow-Ulsterman and friend, Paul Cutler.