STANLEY BRIDGE, P.E.I. — Mark Carragher reached back into his past for the confidence to win his first Cooke Insurance P.E.I. Amateur in a playoff with Stephen Anderson Sunday at Andersons Creek Golf Course.
The two golfers were tied at 7-under 209 after 54 holes at the three-round championship at the Stanley Bridge golf course.
They each parred the first playoff hole before Carragher hit a key chip shot and drained a putt from about eight feet to birdie No. 2 and clinch the province’s most prestigious golf tournament.
“It’s nerve-racking, and that’s what it’s all about,” Carragher said of the final putt. “You play to have those moments, and those are the putts you want to have. …
“It was a great battle all day against Anderson and Curtis Hall.”
The 36-year-old Charlottetown resident, who is a well-known former hockey player and an assistant coach with the UPEI Panthers men’s program, has golfed since he was a kid. But his game has reached new heights in recent years.
“A lot of it is about confidence in golf,” he said. “I just have become more and more confident with my golf game, and for whatever reason, the last couple of years, it’s kind of clicked.”
He referenced winning the club championship at Belvedere in 2019 as a key for him. It also helped lead him to victory on Sunday.
“Winning that tournament kind of gave me some confidence to realize, ‘OK, I can win’,” he said. “I kind of leaned on that experience (Sunday) to know that, when it gets close down the stretch, I can close the job.”
For most of the weekend, everyone was chasing Anderson, a 25-year-old Morell native who recently completed a distinguished university hockey career at UNB that included three national titles in four years.
He started the tournament by firing a blistering 7-under 65 on Friday’s opening round.
Carragher, who fired a respectable 1-under, knew he had his work cut out for him Saturday to give himself a fighting shot to be in contention on Sunday.
He played aggressively and shot a 68 to cut the deficit to one as Anderson carded a 73 on Day 2.
“I knew I had to make a push,” Carragher said. “My goal was to get within a couple of shots going into Sunday. I knew if I was going to do that, I had to put up a low round Saturday, so that was my goal.”
Anderson, Carragher and Hall, the defending champ, were paired together Sunday as the leaders entering the final round, each separated by one stroke.
Carragher was 1-under on the front nine to take a three-shot lead after Anderson was 3-over through nine holes and Hall was 1-over.
Anderson and Hall weren’t going away quietly, though, collecting birdies on three of the next five holes, but they didn’t gain any ground as Carragher birdied 10 and eagled 12. Anderson continued to push, parring Nos. 15-17 before finishing with a birdie on 18 while Carragher bogeyed 15 and 17.
“Anderson and Hall both made a big push on the back nine, and it was right down to the wire,” Carragher said. “It was a nice relief to get it done.”
He won’t have much time to relax as he is back to defend his club championship at Belvedere, which begins on Saturday.
Other divisions
Abbey Baker, 15, of Halifax won the women’s event by 16 strokes over her older sister, Haley. She also claimed the junior girls’ trophy and won the Nova Scotia junior by four strokes earlier this month.
Kensington’s Tim Yorke repeated as the men’s mid-amateur champ with a three-round 1-over 217 while Prince Edward Island Golf Association president Melissa Castle of Charlottetown won the women’s mid-amateur. Yorke has won the mid-amateur title five of the past six years.
Gary Melanson of Woodstock, N.B., won the senior men’s title by four strokes over Charlottetown’s Dave Shellington while Stratford’s Sherry White won the senior women’s championship by two shots over Stanhope’s Chrissie MacLauchlan. Melanson won the super senior division a year ago while White has earned the senior title three straight years and seven of the past eight years.
Owen Mullen of Shortts Lake, N.S., won the junior boys’ competition. Summerside’s Justin Caron and Cornwall’s Bradley Chisholm were tied for second. Mullen, who golfs out of the Truro Golf Club, won the Nova Scotia junior boys’ title earlier this month.
By the numbers
A look at the top five golfers' scores in each division of the Cooke Insurance P.E.I. Amateur.
Men
Mark Carragher 71 68 70 209 -7
Stephen Anderson 65 73 71 209 -7
Curtis Hall 71 69 71 211 -5
Owen Mullen 76 68 71 215 -1
Brodie Ward 74 69 73 216 E
Women
Abbey Baker 70 72 75 217 +1
Haley Baker 81 78 74 233 +17
Sherry White 81 74 81 236 +20
Chrissie MacLauchlan 81 79 78 238 +22
Myrna Millar 78 82 80 240 +24
Mid-Amateur Men
Tim Yorke 73 72 72 217 E
Cameron King 73 79 77 229 +13
Aaron Cole 76 70 84 230 +14
Kris Taylor 74 78 79 231 +15
Kevin MacAllister 79 76 78 233 +17
Mid-Amateur Women
Melissa Castle 78 84 91 253 +19
Lori Whitman 90 89 92 271 +20
Senior Men
Gary Melanson 70 73 75 218 +2
Dave Shellington 70 78 74 222 +6
Alan Aitken 73 72 79 224 +8
Jamie Vessey 70 78 78 224 +10
Stephen MacIsaac 74 76 77 227 +11
Malcolm Reid 72 76 79 227 +11
Senior Women
Sherry White 81 74 81 236 +20
Chrissie MacLauchlan 81 79 78 238 +22
Myrna Millar 78 82 80 240 +24
Debby Beck 91 82 90 263 +47
Corrina Forster 87 93 95 275 +59
Junior Boys
Owen Mullen 76 68 71 215 -1
Justin Caron 80 72 74 226 +10
Bradley Chisholm 76 72 78 226 +10
Caleb Drake 76 74 77 227 +11
Colby MacArthur 78 78 75 231 +15
Junior Girls
Abbey Baker 70 72 75 217 +1
Haley Baker 81 78 74 233 +17
Jacquelyn Taylor 84 77 87 248 +32
Lexie MacDonald 90 91 82 263 +47
Isabelle MacKinnon 97 103 97 297 +81