Maynooth’s Aaron Marshall carded a two-under par round of 70 to lead the Irish leg of the R&A Student Series after day one on the Montgomerie Course at Carton House.
Fresh off the college enjoying a clean sweep of the individual and team awards at Fairmont St. Andrews last month, Lisburn’s Marshall leads for Maynooth after recovering from two bogeys at the first and second holes before bouncing back with an eagle at the par-5 fourth.
Marshall added two more gains at the sixth and ninth to be out in two-under and that’s where he’d remain, parring home to head a group of four players on minus-one that include Maynooth teammate Eoin Murphy and NUI Galway’s Liam Nolan.
In the women’s event, Maynooth’s Clodagh Walsh, sister to Wake Forest star Lauren sits just one stroke off the early pace set by Stirling’s Lorna McClymont at two-over par. Castlewarden golfer Walsh carded four birdies but also signed for five bogeys and a double to sit in a tie for second at three-over par. Trinity’s Kate Lanigan is sharing sixth at seven-over while Maynooth’s Kate Dwyer is the only other Irishwoman inside the top-10 at plus-eight.
The Series was first launched in 2019 to provide student golfers throughout UK and Europe with high performance playing opportunities. It was not played in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The R&A Student Tour Series extends the support of student golf. Each year, almost £500,000 is invested in student and university golf through the R&A Foundation Scholars programme. Currently, the organisation supports golf programmes at 17 universities and in the 2020 /2021 academic year and awards individual Foundation scholarships.
The R&A has supported university and student golf for over 37 years with former scholars including: 2019 Champion Golfer of the Year Shane Lowry (University College Dublin); 2018 Champion Golfer of the Year Francesco Molinari (University of Turin); 2021 Masters Tournament winner Hideki Matsuyama; and Catriona Matthew (University of Stirling), the 2019 and 2021 European Solheim Cup Captain and former AIG Women’s Open Champion.
- Full scoring HERE
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