Dermot McElroy shot a six-under 65 to make major strides up the leaderboard on moving day at the Farmfoods Scottish Challenge at Newmacher Golf Club, but despite knowing that he’ll be several shots back going into the final round, he doesn’t feel it’s a course where you can throw caution to the wind and go for broke.
“No, I don’t think you can be aggressive around this place,” he said when asked if the midset would change on Sunday. “If you are, you’re going to lose balls. So no, I think you just have to hit it in certain parts of the golf course and then wedge from there.”
The wind has steadily picked up over the first two days and continued to do so on Saturday, and McElroy feels that distance control in the gusts is the biggest challenge.
“Yeah, certainly stronger than the first few days,” he said of the conditions, “it’s a little bit gustier as well.
“So, the trick here is to sort of judge your distance because, you know, you can have a nice yardage, and then all of a sudden, midway through, you get a big gust and you’re 10 yards short, 10 yards long.
“So, yeah, just controlling your ball flight and a little bit of luck as well is obviously needed on the day, I guess.”
And the Ballymena man controlled his distance better than most, making seven birdies with just the one shot dropped and, with the leaders still on course, he’s likely to end the day in the top 10 or just a shot off it.
“Yeah, I played well,” he said. “I stitched maybe four of them and then holed a couple of 10-footers and then holed a nice one on the last. Actually, probably like 30 ft, which is always nice to finish on.
“But no, I’ve been playing very well – the first two days as well, just haven’t really holed any putts, but today at least I holed a couple of putts, which is great.”
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