{"id":650548,"date":"2026-06-21T12:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T12:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/650548\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T12:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T12:30:14","slug":"stuart-grehan-wins-amateur-championship-at-royal-liverpool-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/650548\/","title":{"rendered":"Stuart Grehan wins Amateur Championship at Royal Liverpool \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Offaly\u2019s Stuart Grehan has won the 2026 Amateur Championship after holding his nerve to beat USA\u2019s Matt Moloney at Royal Liverpool.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The 33-year-old\u2019s win in Saturday\u2019s 36-hole final, becoming the first Irish winner since James Sugrue in 2019, secures him exemptions to play at The Open at Royal Birkdale next month, as well as next year\u2019s Masters and US Open.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI\u2019m absolutely over the moon,\u201d the County Louth golfer said after the victory, joining the ranks of former champions including Sergio Garcia, Michael Bonallack and Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Olaz\u00e1bal. \u201cSo much hard work has gone into it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Grehan reached the final after a comfortable 5&amp;4 quarter-final win over England\u2019s Edward Featherstone before holding out in a nip-and-tuck semi-final against Estonia\u2019s Richard Teder for a 2&amp;1 victory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The 20-year-old American made the better start in the final, going three up after 12 holes. However, Grehan finished the morning session strong, taking the 14th and 16th holes to level matters for the 17th. Moloney birdied the 18th for a one-hole lead heading into the afternoon session.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Stuart Grehan with the Amateur Championshiptrophy.\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/O23HUS7KTNDGVKVHSWEU5JVJTM.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"494\"\/>Stuart Grehan with the Amateur Championshiptrophy. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">On the resumption, the tables turned and Grehan claimed the opening two holes with pars to go one ahead. Going blow-for-blow, the pair were all square to start the 26th, where a birdie put Grehan back in front.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">From there, he pushed on, extending his lead on the 28th and 33rd holes as Moloney began to struggle. The American made one last charge to claim the 34th and 35th, sending it to the decisive 36th, where a pair of pars saw Grehan hold on for the one-hole win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThis morning I got off to a really slow start,\u201d said Grehan of his performance. \u201cI was really struggling with my swing and lunch came at a good time to reset.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI played really well this afternoon and hit some great shots. Obviously, coming down the stretch, there were a few iffy ones, but there\u2019s so much pressure, and so much at stake, so it\u2019s bound to happen. I played the last hole really, really well and got the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">With doors now swinging open for him, Grehan added: \u201cI\u2019m going to be buzzing for The Open. I\u2019ll love it, I\u2019ll absolutely love it. It hasn\u2019t really sunk in yet. I\u2019m going to the Masters as well. I haven\u2019t even thought of that either. I\u2019ll just relish it and take it all in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Offaly\u2019s Stuart Grehan has won the 2026 Amateur Championship after holding his nerve to beat USA\u2019s Matt Moloney&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-650548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}