![\"Mark](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/32fc0802-f10d-4c5a-8bc5-f248eabc6c88.jpg\")
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Mark Cadden in action during his quarter-final against Caolan Rafferty. Photo: Tom O’Hanlon\/Inpho<\/p>\n
Teenagers Mark Cadden and Alex Kerins will face off for a place in the final of the Connolly Motor Group West of Ireland Amateur Open Championship at County Sligo Golf Club.<\/p>\n
Roganstown talent Cadden (19) saw off former winners Barry Anderson and Caolan Rafferty as Carton House\u2019s Kerins (19) beat Conor Stapleton and leading qualifier Jonathan Keane from Lahinch.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlayed great today, very, very steady stuff,\u201d said Cadden after beating Anderson 4 and 3 and Walker Cup star Rafferty from Dundalk by a whopping 6 and 5.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was lucky enough to finish on 16 and 13, nice finish and put the feet up now for the rest of the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s matchplay, so anything can happen, just put your head down and grind away. Just try and make no mistakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cCaolan is such a good golfer, he has won so many championships in Ireland, and [played] Walker Cup. I knew it was going to be a tough match playing him.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the other semi-final, last year\u2019s beaten finalist, Warrenpoint\u2019s Colm Campbell, will take on The Island\u2019s Cian Harkin.<\/p>\n
Campbell edged out 2024 champion Keith Egan on the 18th in his quarter-final as Harkin defeated home favourite Aodhagan Brady 3 and 2.<\/p>\n
West of Ireland Amateur Open, sponsored by Connolly Motor Group, Co Sligo GC Last 16 Jonathan Keane (Lahinch) bt Se\u00e1n McLoughlin (County Sligo) 2\/1 Alex Kerins (Carton House) bt Conor Stapleton (Westport) 5\/4 Mark Cadden (Roganstown) bt Barry Anderson (Cork) 4\/2 Caolan Rafferty (Dundalk) bt Eoin Sullivan (Portmarnock) 3\/2 Aodhagan Brady (Co Sligo) bt R\u00edan Carvill (Warrenpoint) 4\/3 Cian Harkin (Island) bt Robert Abernethy (Dun Laoghaire) 3\/1 Keith Egan (Carton House) bt James Fox (Portmarnock) 2\/1 Colm Campbell (Warrenpoint) bt David Shiel (Enniscrone) 5\/3 Quarter\u2011finals Kerins bt Keane 3\/2; Cadden bt Rafferty 6\/5; Harkin bt Brady 3\/2; Campbell bt Egan 1 up. Semi\u2011finals 8am: Kerins v Cadden; 8.10am: Harkin v Campbell. Final (1pm)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Cadden in action during his quarter-final against Caolan Rafferty. Photo: Tom O’Hanlon\/Inpho Teenagers Mark Cadden and Alex…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7938,61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-385322","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-brian-keogh","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}