West Waterford’s Gary Hurley signed off with a two-over par round of 74 to lead home the Irish challenge at the Alps Tour’s Winter Series event at Golf Nazionale.
In the end it was a week that left Hurley wondering what might’ve been having opened with a four-under 68 on Monday before following up with rounds of 75 and 74 to finish the wrong side of par at one-over.
Hurley’s third round included four bogeys and two birdies, leaving him in a tie for 17th, and that’s the best the Irish could muster with The Island’s Paul McBride bookending his week with one-over par 71s for a two-over tally and a share of 22nd while Naas pro Jonathan Yates completed the Irish scoring at four-over par after three birdies in his final round 75.
At the top, Swissman Mathias Eggenberger won the second leg of the Italian Winter Series by five strokes at 10-under par (67-71-68).
Eggenberger, 30, who earned his card for the Alps Tour in 2018, had previously enjoyed his best ever result at this very venue last October where he finished 2nd at the Golf Nazionale Alps Open.
He dropped only 5 strokes during the week at arguably the toughest course on the Alps roster and was understandably pleased with his resounding win:
“I’m really happy. It took me a long time but it finally came. I got very close last year but now I’m simply glad I won. My next tournament will be in Pescara and hopefully I will play as good as I have been playing here.
“I had a really solid game along the 3 days and I managed to hole some important putts at the end which is great. I didn’t know I was leading the tournament until the 18th when I looked at the leaderboard and turned out I had a 4 shots margin on the 2nd place. That made the last putt easier!”
- Full scoring HERE
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