COLIN GLASGOW stormed in at the end of the day to cut short the celebrations of Noel Fox at Royal Portrush yesterday after the second qualifying round in the Carlsberg-sponsored North of Ireland championship.
It looked odds-on that East of Ireland winner Fox had pocketed the silver medal as leading qualifier, having handed in a one-under-par 71 from Dunluce to be four under at 138 for the 36 holes.
Glasgow, however, had other ideas and posted a three-under 69 on the big course to be one shot ahead of Fox. So he takes the honours going into this morning's first round of matchplay.
The Clandyboye one handicapper, who won the West of Ireland championship 13 years ago, was out in level figures and then pencilled in an eagle three at the 10th hole, slotting home a 20-foot putt. He had landed a similar putt for a birdie on the seventh green.
After dropping a stroke at the 13th, he made back-to-back birdies at the 16th and 17th for a superb home run of three under par (33). "I putted it well and this is the first medal I have won in any championship apart from the winner's at Rosses Point in `83," reflected Glasgow, whose performance put a host of internationals in the shade.
Fox had a yoyo round of six birdies, five bogeys and seven pars in his 71. He three-putted three times and missed the green twice in a rare performance on Dunluce.
"It was tough out there with a crosswind making scoring difficult," said the 22-year-old Portmarnock player, who heads off to East Tennessee State University in the autumn.
It was Peter Lawrie who set a scorching pace over the Valley Course on Monday with a four-under-par 66, but he took 10 shots more to get around Dunluce yesterday. The UCD undergraduate had only two birdies on his card which also showed four bogeys and a double bogey six at the 12th hole, where he was buried in deep rough. He still was quite pleased with his game and explained that the greens were faster on the big course than on the Valley.
Local player Colin McElderry, handed in a 71 to join Fox and Glasgow as the only competitors in the 300-strong field to break par on Dunluce. Glasgow and Fox were the only ones to dip under regulation on both courses.
Five-times winner Garth McGimpsey finished on one-over-par 143 to be once again safely into the knock-out stages, while defending champion Keith Nolan was less than happy with his performance yesterday. The Bray man carded a five-over-par 77 and immediately went off to the practice ground.
The cut-off mark was at 150 as the 64 players survived for the matchplay stages.
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