Joe McWilliams produced one of the standout rounds of the day at his home club, Naas, to surge to the top of the leaderboard at the Irish Senior Men’s Amateur Open Championship.
On a challenging second day for many at the Kildare venue, McWilliams’s superb four-under-par 67 earned him a one-shot lead heading into the final round.
Following an opening-round 73, the local favourite found his rhythm with everything, by his own admission, seemingly falling into place.
“It’s hard enough but got a few lucky breaks today. Yesterday wasn’t so good but today was good so we’ll have to wait and see what happens tomorrow”, said McWilliams.
“Yesterday I actually played better tee to green, I just couldn’t get the ball in the hole. Today just every time I looked at the hole the ball went in so a good day, you don’t get many of those days so nice to have them.”
An opening birdie set the tone, and as his solid play continued as he would go on to add five more birdies throughout the day, including a hat trick across 11, 12 and 13.
His 67 was matched only by Andrew Morris (Royal Portrush) and Jason Law (East Cork) as the lowest scores of the second round.
With a strong local presence expected to turn out in support, McWilliams joked that home advantage might not be entirely beneficial.
“That could be a disadvantage when I have all these fellas chasing me around shouting and roaring at me but no, it’s good to be here,” said McWilliams.
Joining McWilliams in that final group will be Stephen Creed (Stratford on Avon Golf Club) and 2024 Irish Men’s Amateur Close Champion Joe Lyons (Galway). Creed sits just one shot back on -1 while Lyons is a further shot behind on level par.
Creed’s sensational opening round 65 was almost undone on day two, as the overnight leader carded a second round 76. However late birdies on 17 and 18 saw the former English Senior Men’s Amateur Open Champion finish strongly to keep his title hopes alive.
“I look forward to playing with my playing partners and there’s some wonderful golfers here today”, said Creed.
“Hopefully we’ll have a good tussle at the end and one of us will come out winner, obviously, but hopefully that will be me.”
View the second round scoring and final round tee times here
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