Finch plunges to Irish victory

Finch came to the last hole of the 2007 Mallorca Classic uncertain of his future on the European Tour ­ a bogey four and he might well have been packing his bags for the Qualifying School.

As it turned out the hugely popular Hull man made a birdie two to finish 7th, went on to win in New Zealand in December and has now added the Irish Open crown after a wet, but glorious, finish to his round.

Again, Finch's destiny came down to the final hole and, for very different reasons, it will live long in the memory. With a three-stroke lead, the Englishman was faced with a wedge, played from inside a hazard, from around 120 yards.

With so many shots in hand the sensible option would surely have been to chip back towards the fairway.

Instead, the 30-year-old took it on, made solid enough contact but then toppled back into the River Maigue. What was the more impressive achievement either managing to remain on his feet and limit the damage to a pair of soaked trousers or finding the putting surface ­ was a difficult choice.

Nevertheless three putts later and Finch had moved up to fifth on the Order of Merit and into genuine Ryder Cup contention.

"I never gave a thought to falling in," he said. "Making decent contact was the only thing I was bothered about. But the momentum of the shot took me in and once I got out again I thought 'God, I'm going to take a while to live this one down'.

"It wasn't too cold, but I don't think anybody had switched on the heating. I was absolutely dumbstruck, but I had swimming lessons as a kid, so I wasn't fearing for my safety."

The bizarre ending will be most talked about but his play over the previous 17 holes was outstanding. While most of the field struggled to find many birdies Finch picked up four from the 7th to the 15th as well as holing some crucial par putts from distance.

"I was a lot calmer than I was in New Zealand, and although my swing was not great, I felt a lot more on control," he added. The former English Amateur champion can now look forward to an Open Championship debut at Royal Birkdale though will still head to Walton Heath to try and qualify for the US Open.

Felipe Aguilar came through to bag second spot while Robert Karlsson, Gary Murphy, Maarten Lafeber and Lee Westwood were all three shots adrift. Murphy gave the Irish fans real hope of another home victory, following Padraig Harrington's success last year, with four birdies in the first six holes but he was unable to maintain that momentum.