Conor Purcell’s opening round at the Black Desert NI Open was interrupted by lightning, but that didn’t stop the Portmarnock man from carding a superb four-under 66 to move into the top five by day’s end.
After making his first venture into red figures with a birdie on two, he immediately gave the shot back on the next, but that would be his only bogey of the day and he carded two more each side of the turn to reach the clubhouse at four-under, three behind Swede Joaquim Lagergren who made light of the tough setup and conditions to make an eagle and five birdies and card a 63.
“Yeah, very pleased,” was Purcell’s assessment. “It’s not a course I’ve actually done well on the last few times I’ve been here, so just, yeah, I worked hard in the practise days and came up with a game plan and stuck to that.”
The game plan isn’t necessarily the most complex, as the leading Irishman in the Road to Mallorca rankings went on to divulge.
“I think just picking good targets,” he explained. “I think some of the tee shots look like they’re tighter than they are. And I think when you have a good middle to kind of aim at now, you can miss it right and left of that target. And I did a good job of that today, which is good.”
The heavens opened prior to and during the inclement weather, meaning that the Irish players felt very much at home, whether they wanted to or not. And Purcell is a man who relishes the tougher tests and feels that the scoring will be quite different from the typical Challenge Tour weeks.
“Yeah, this course is a really good test, and I think it’s nice to play a course where you’re not going to have to probably shoot better than 20-under to win the week.
“Yeah, I’ve been enjoying it so far and quite a lot of players are talking about the test that it is off the tee.”
Purcell moves one shot ahead of Gary Hurley who shot a bogey-free 67 in the morning session.
Home favourite Dermot McElroy was also among the late starters, but after an early birdie, succumbed to the testing elements and a double bogey on nine was added to with three more bogeys on the back side with just a solitary birdie leaving him with work to do to see weekend action on +3.
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