John Murphy was delighted to put his first round struggles behind him as he opened with a superb round of 66 at the New Giza Open, the third and final leg of the Alps Tour’s Egyptian swing.
Murphy, who has made one and missed one of two cuts after being under pressure after the first round of each event, made sure he started on the right foot and he lies in a share of second place with compatriot Hugh Foley on six-under-par, just one shot off the lead.
The Kinsale man roared out of the traps with five birdies in his first seven holes including three in a row from the fifth. A bogey on the 12th was his only blemish on the day as he birdied the 10th and 17th.
The 26-year-old has been seeing some good signs as he attempts to rebuild his game after two years in the golfing doldrums which saw him fall off the DP World Tour as far as the Alps Tour.
“Today there were good conditions, not much wind. So this morning there were quite a few opportunities, and I managed to take advantage of them well,” explained Murphy.
“I never put too much pressure on myself and stayed pretty stress-free for most of the time. In the last few weeks, I’ve struggled in the first round to get going and basically knocked myself out of the tournament. So this time, I tried to focus more on relaxing from the start, and I did a good job with that. Overall, I’m happy with the score, but obviously there’s still a lot of golf to play.”
Royal Dublin’s Foley has enjoyed his first few weeks as a touring professional, already picking up a top-10 finish on his debut and he also carded a round of 66.
Foley picked up seven birdies and dropped just one shot on the opening day and he was pleased to see the work he put in on his pace putting in practice to cope with the large greens pay off.
“I was out early this morning at 7.10am which is almost always good to get a little less wind and the best of the greens. I played nicely, I have been working hard with my coach (Geoff Loughrey) and it’s great to see some good signs from that work come through. The course has big greens so I thought it was key to work on pace putting this week. I started steadily and then the birdie on 18 (my 9th) started a nice run of chances and I made a few good putts.”
It was a good day for the Irish overall in Cairo with 2023 Alps Tour Order of Merit winner Ronan Mullarney on two-under-par after a round of 70 while Robert Moran is a shot further back.
Marc Boucher struggled on day one, falling to a two-over 74.
Scoring HERE
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