Claimed the 2012 Portugal Masters – his second European Tour title – with a superb final round 66. Had already finished by the time Ross Fisher needed to hole a four-foot par putt on the 18th to force a play-off, and was soon jumping for joy when the Englishman missed. Took fifth place in the lucrative BMW Masters a week later to finish a career-best 29th in The Race to Dubai. Shot to prominence in 2009 when he became only the third amateur to win a European Tour title – and the second that year following New Zealander Danny Lee – when he captured the Irish Open at County Louth Golf Club in Baltray, beating Robert Rock at the third hole of a play-off. Has achieved a great deal in his young career, emulating his fellow Irish European Tour Champions Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington, Peter Lawrie, Paul McGinley and Rory McIlroy by winning the prestigious Irish Amateur Close Championship in 2007. Was also a member of the Ireland Team which won the European Amateur Team Championship in 2007, and then retained the title in 2008 at the Royal Park I Roveri – a former venue of The European Tour’s BMW Italian Open between 2009 and 2012. Other successes in 2008 came in the West of Ireland Championship and the North of Ireland Championship, which led him to being ranked at a career-high sixth in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. His father, Brendan, was a famous Gaelic footballer who won the All-Ireland Championship with County Offaly in 1982.