Gavin Tiernan, Joshua Hill and Stuart Grehan are all safely through to the matchplay section of the 130th Amateur Championship at Royal St George’s and Royal Cinque Ports, but Keith Egan will return on Wednesday morning to compete in a 24-man playoff for the remaining five places.
Playing Royal Cinque Ports on day two after an extremely impressive five-under on the Open Championship course at Royal St George’s on day one, County Louth’s Tiernan followed up with a one-under 71 to cruise into the knockout stages in sixth place.
Galgorm Castle’s Hill began the day at -2 having also tackled St George’s in the opening round, and he matched Tiernan’s 71 to finish in 23rd place, while Tiernan’s club mate Grehan also did enough to book safe passage though he carded a one-over 71 at Royal St George’s in the final strokeplay round having gone round Royal Cinque Ports in -4.
The low round of the day from a contending Irishman was that of Egan, who went round Royal Cinque Ports in two-under after an opening one-over 71 on day one. A trio of birdies late in the front nine put him in position, but after a bogey on 12, a crucial birdie on the 16th got him back above the cutline, but he’ll return to the course at 7am to face off against 23 others, each hoping to book one of the five remaining matchplay berths.
There was disappointment for Malahide’s Gavin O’Neill who couldn’t reproduce the form he showed in the opening round and missed out by three, while Thomas Higgins, Matthew McClean, James Gould-Healy, Luke O’Neill, Sean Keeling, Jack Murphy, Paul Coughlan, Joe Lyons, Benjamin Oberholzer, Mark Cadden, David Howard, Ryan Griffin and Brian Doran also missed out.
Scotland’s Connor Graham has repeated history to claim top qualifying honours.
For a second consecutive year, Graham has finished atop the leaderboard after 36-holes of stroke play qualifying, a shot ahead of the field, with a nine-under-par aggregate of 133.
The 18-year-old from Blairgowrie, who is the 47th ranked player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings® (WAGR®), played exemplary golf in benign conditions on the sunny Sandwich Bay coast, recording a bogey-free six-under-par 64 across the famed links of Royal St George’s following his three-under-par 69 at Royal Cinque Ports yesterday.
Heading out in two-under thanks to birdies on the par-4 5th and par-5 7th holes, the Texas Tech University freshman continued with a trio of birdies from the par-4 12th hole before adding another at the par-3 16th hole to find familiar territory as the best of the top-64 who progress to the match play. Graham hopes to progress further in the Championship this year following his defeat in the round of 32 at Ballyliffin in 2024.
Also safely progressing to the match play stage of the Championship are Ugo Malcor of France and Matteo Cristoni of Italy, who were Graham’s closest challengers for the top honour.
The Frenchman, who held the lead for most of the day, consolidated his exceptional opening round at Royal Cinque Ports (66) with another solid score at Royal St George’s today, recording a two-under-par 68 to a be a stroke behind on eight-under-par 134.
The Mississippi State golfer made three birdies, a bogey, and 14 pars earlier this morning to earn his way into the match play where he is joined by Cristoni who recorded consecutive rounds of 67, highlighted by his bogey-free performance at Royal Cinque Ports yesterday.
The 23-year-old Italian finds himself in the match play of The Amateur Championship for a fourth time in five years. His best result was in 2022, when he progressed to the round of 32 before being defeated by the eventual champion Aldrich Potgieter of South Africa.
Other notable qualifiers are world number five Tommy Morrison of the United States, his compatriot and world number seven Ethan Fang, last year’s runner-up, Dominic Clemons of England and fellow Englishman Kris Kim, winner of the R&A Boys’ Amateur Championship in 2023.
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