SUMMER SUNSHINE and a breeze that freshened from late morning provided a balmy backdrop to the 36-hole strokeplay qualifying section of the Irish Amateur Close Championship at Royal Dublin.
The process in whittling the field down to 64 qualifiers who will tee it up in today’s matchplay format began on Saturday when Lucan’s Richard O’Donovan posted the best score of the day with a two-under 70.
He almost managed to retain that status and in doing so claim the silver medal as the leading qualifier with a fine 72 yesterday, but he was joined on the 142 mark by Luke Lennox, who produced a stunning second round of 66. Thus Lennox claimed the silver medal by virtue of that superior score.
The 20-year-old Moyola Park golfer, who had opened with a 76, confessed to being “a little bit nervous on the first tee” because he thought his opening 18 holes had given him little leeway in terms of qualification.
He need not have worried. A Boys and Youths international and a member of the senior national panel, he amassed eight birdies and two bogeys en route to his lowest score in competitive golf.
Having finished in a tie for fourth behind Alan Dunbar at the recent Irish Amateur Open Championship, also staged at Royal Dublin, his affinity for the north Dublin links required little elaboration. He was quickly into his stride with birdies at the second, fifth and sixth holes, but caught a bunker on the seventh and mis-clubbed on the eighth to arrest the momentum.
A seven-iron to 10 feet at the ninth provided the preamble to a fourth birdie and saw him turn in two under.
His journey home was blemish-free with birdies on the 11th, 14th, 15th and 16th. He could even afford the luxury of spurning another opportunity on the 17th, missing a short putt to extend the sequence.
“I probably shot a score today because I wasn’t trying to,” he said. “But I hit the ball well and took most of the opportunities.”
The pair finished one shot ahead of Seán Ryan, a one handicapper of the host club. The 23-year-old didn’t have the best opening to his day when his car wouldn’t start, but after flagging down a taxi he made his early tee-time and proceeded to shoot a superb, 67.
“I know this course can eat you up so I stayed patient. I drove well, putted well and played the par fives conservatively which really worked out. I felt great and would probably have been more nervous with a score like that going in a Wednesday fourball.”
A change of putter prior to the tournament certainly had the desired effect.
The UCD graduate smiled when asked what he did for a living: “I’ll make a decision later in the year whether to turn professional or go back and do a Masters in Town Planning. If it wasn’t for the recession I wouldn’t be playing golf,” he laughed, pointing out that he had returned from Adelaide in Australia where he had spent a year playing golf.
Most of the pre-tournament favourites comfortably negotiated the qualifying process, but that wasn’t the case for the defending Irish Close champion Pat Murray who took four strokes too many over the two rounds.
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