Walker the only man in the black after punishing opening day at Co. Sligo

Mark McGowan
|
|

Simon Walker playing his tee shot on the 13th hole at County Sligo Golf Club

Mark McGowan

Feature Interviews

Latest Stories

After a mostly calm and temperate practice day, the Harry Colt Championship Links at County Sligo showed its teeth and more in the opening round of the Connolly Motor Group West of Ireland Championship.

Strong winds accompanied the 138-man field from the off, but it was the afternoon wave that bore the brunt as the gusts grew stronger and constant rain was thrown into the equation.

Playing in the third group of the day, Roscommon’s Simon Walker made light of the conditions to shoot a level-par 71 that, in the opinion of the Rosses Point faithful who remained huddled in the clubhouse, was a day’s tally that wouldn’t be matched, let alone beaten.

And so it proved. The Maynooth student and reining Irish Intervarsity champion birdied two of his opening nine holes and remained bogey-free until he reached the 12th, but had to endure a sticky patch as a bogey was followed by a double on 13 as an untimely gust whipped resulted in a lost ball on the par-3.

Impressively, he regrouped to par 14 and got back to level with a birdie on 15 before closing out the final three without further damage and he’ll take a three-stroke lead into the second and final day of strokeplay qualifying.

“Yeah, very happy,” he said after his round. “It was a very early start this morning. I was up at 4:30 or so, but the conditions… coming here to the west, you always have to be expecting that. It’s gonna be tough, but, luckily I was with, with Aodhagan [Brady] and Ryan [Griffin, both fellow Maynooth students] today, so that made it a bit easier.

“When the conditions are tough and it was so cold out there, it’s nearly easier to sort of stay in the moment because I think about staying warm and staying dry, so that’s kind of all I did, just took it hole by hole, enjoyed it coming in and trusted that I was playing pretty nicely.”

Dungannon’s Dwayne Mellon, Sean Murphy from Grange Golf Club and 19-year-old Swiss, Julius Sommer, share second on +3, one ahead of an eight-strong contingent at +4 that includes 2022 Irish Close Championship winner Quentin Carew, recent Spanish Amateur Championship semi-finalist Luke O’Neill, local favourite Seán McLoughlin, and 52-year-old Eddie McCormack.

“I’ve never seen it play so tough,” McCormack said. “Coming here 27 years and no, never hit hybrid to the first, never had a 5-iron from 113-yards to the second, 2-iron to the fourth, rescue to the ninth.

“Just don’t make any major mistakes, don’t make any double bogeys. I had one or two good putts for bogey that looked like double bogeys, but just take your punishment and walk on. ”

Castleknock’s Carew missed out on last year’s West of Ireland Championship to celebrate the birth of his daughter, but the beaten 2023 quarter-finalist is delighted to be back and is embracing the challenge.

“Yeah, she was actually born on the first round of it last year,” Carew explains. “So, yeah, my mind was elsewhere last year. But I love coming up here and because it’s a course that’s always in great order, it’s always a great event, great support, so I’m glad to get back up here this year.

The West of Ireland Championship is one of the few Irish amateur titles still to evade Colm Campbell’s grasp, but the former South, East and two-time Irish Amateur Open winner was rightly satisfied with a five-over 76.

“Yeah, that was as tough as I’ve played Rosses Point in a very long time,” he recalled, “from the word go, from start to finish, it was just a mental grind. There was no easy holes at all, even the downwind holes were tough, so it was just a day of hanging in and trying to hold a couple of putts and try and keep the big numbers off the scorecard.

“The putter-head’s moving all over the place in the wind and, you know you’re gonna have a lot of 20-30 footers because it’s so difficult to get it close, but look, it’s the same for everybody. I was happy with how I played and delighted with the five-over-par.”

Defending champion Keith Egan opened with a six-over 77, and he too is satisfied with the way he battled and handled the obstacles in front of him.

“It’s one of the hardest days of golf I’ve ever played, but in fairness, it was somewhat enjoyable just because it was that difficult,” Egan said. “You just kind of had to embrace the conditions. So, yeah, I kind of got through it even after a rough start, so I’m happy enough with my score.”

Pre-tournament favourite Stuart Grehan lies tied for 26th on +7, local hero Aodhagan Brady sits one further back on +8, while another trio of Sligo men in TJ Ford, Barry Anderson and Seán Flanagan are an additional shot adrift and just above the provisional cutline at +9.

FULL SCORING

Stay ahead of the game. Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest Irish Golfer news straight to your inbox!

More News

Leave a comment


The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy & Terms of Service apply.