After victory at the Irish PGA Championship at Palmerstown House Estate last month, Niall Kearney’s rich vein of form is showing no signs of abating as the Dubliner doubled down by winning the PGA Open Series event at Belvoir Park in Belfast.
A stiff breeze made conditions tricky on day two and the scoring reflected that with just five of the 70 competitors breaking par.
In a three-way tie for the lead alongside Colm Moriarty and Joe Dillon after the opening 18 holes, Kearney shot the round of the day with a second successive 66 on day two to secure a one-stroke victory over Moriarty.
Birdies on the opening two holes and another on the fifth saw him reach the turn at -3 for the day, and two more on the back-nine’s par 3s were enough to get him to the clubhouse at the winning -8 number.
“Yeah, I’m coming into a bit of form now,” Kearney said afterwards. “My game has been pretty decent the last few months and, particularly the last few weeks, it’s been a little bit sharper again.
“I was a little bit unwell last week, chest infection and stuff like that, so I came into this week not really sure where my game was at, and I went out yesterday and actually played decent. Didn’t hit it quite as well today but scored just as well.
“My putting has been great the last few months, and that’s made a big difference to my game, you know. I got off to quite a fast start. The first hole offers a great birdie opportunity and managed to get off to a fast start and then the back nine, I didn’t capitalise on the two par-5s which sort of halted the progress a little bit.
“But yeah, it’s promising to know that it could have been a little bit more as well.”
As fast as Kearney’s start was, Moriarty was a little slow out of the traps and he had to wait until the par-5 fifth to open his birdie account but added another on the next before giving a shot back on seven.
He’d pulled to within one of Kearney through 10 but was back to three behind by the time they’d reached the par-5 15th. A birdie here reduced the deficit to two, and when he birdied 16 he halved the deficit again, leaving just one between Kearney and himself as they faced the closing two holes. In the end, it wasn’t to be and he came up one shot shy.
“Yeah, it was a tougher day today,” Moriarty said. “Yesterday we had pretty much ideal conditions – a little bit of rain here and there – but today was a lot windier.
“And on a course like this – a great course with mature trees – it’s always tricky to gauge the wind in that. But I hit a lot of good shots today, just the putting let me down a little bit.
“I felt like I rolled the ball really well, but just found the greens a little bit slower. I certainly gave myself a lot of chances, but I did hole a couple coming in. So all in all, three-under today, it’s a decent knock in these conditions.”
Moriarty jets off on Sunday to join the Great Britain and Ireland PGA Cup team who will do battle with the United States in Oregon, and he felt that this was ideal preparation.
“Yeah, it was great,” he said. “I mean, it was a good battle out there today. There were a lot of guys in contention and obviously Niall’s very good player, you know?
“So, it was great to get that competitive practise before going to Oregon.”
The Island’s Shane Jenkinson finished in solo third place at -3, one shot clear of Richard Kilpatrick and Jimmy Bolger, with Brian McCormack the only other player to finish in red figures taking solo sixth at -1.
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