The plus-four handicapper, also this season's West of Ireland champion, made amends for losing in last year's Portrush final, and also inched closer to a place in the Great Britain and Ireland teams.

The big fellow from Tullamore, who has obvious designs on securing elevation to the St Andrew's Trophy and Walker Cup sides, beat Andrew Morris of Belvoir Park one-up in the final shootout.

One of the heroes in Ireland's six-man team when retaining the European Team championship earlier this month in Turin, held off the gritty challenge of 34-year-old Morris.

"It was a relief to get down in two putts on the final green for par four and make sure of getting the monkey off my back. After losing last year to Garth Shaw I wanted to make amends," said Lowry.

"I'll take a rest for one week, but after that no let-up. It will be back to playing in the South at Lahinch, the Mullingar Scratch Cup, the Inter-Pros at Athlone and then the European championship in Denmark. Hopefully by then I may manage a place in the St Andrew's Trophy team."

The morning semi-final showdown between Lowry and Ward lived up to all expectation, and indeed much, much more.

This was one of the most nail-biting battles and enthralling fightbacks ever seen on the famous Dunluce championship links.

University student Ward from Co Louth was cruising at four-up after 13 holes. There seemed no way he could lose the high-quality slugging match. But Lowry dug deep and won the next four holes to force overtime.

Shell-shocked Simon couldn't stay with Lowry once last year's national champion ignited his recovery

Lowry conceded: "I was ready to hold up the white flag before playing Calamity Corner in the semi-final. But I made it through, and managed to hold off Andrew Morris."

Portstewart’s Paul Cutler lost in the third round, losing by two holes to Aaron Callaghan of Douglas.