The new Aaron Baddeley

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Shane Lowry, a 22-year-old amateur from Ireland, has just won the Irish Open, beating a host of professional European Tour players.

He emulates Baddeley (the last amateur winner of the Australian Open), as well as the likes of Phil Mickelson and Scott Verplank (who won PGA Tour events), as young amateurs who've beaten the pros in major tour events.

Fascinating to see what his future career holds, not least at the British Open in July. If he can go on to win that as well, we could have another Nicklaus on our hands. With him and Rory McIlroy in the ranks, the future's certainly rosy (if not green and orange) for world golf.

[Brandenburger Toro]

The new Aaron Baddeley

A superb result, for a superb prospect.

Rory McIlroy was going apeshit by the end, they've played on all the youth teams together for ages. The future looks pretty bright for Irish golf, alright.

A nice guy, too, by all accounts. My sister's fiancé knows him a little bit. Actually, one of his close mates played with Lowry for the first two days. He took a fair bit of piss-taking for finishing 17 strokes down to an amateur...