Gavin Tiernan eased into the quarter finals of the 130th Amateur Championship courtesy of a 3&2 win over Frenchman Gaspar Glaudas at Royal St George’s.
Tiernan had shaken off the challenge of Belgium’s Jarno Tollenaire in his last-32 tie on Thursday morning before seeing off Glaudas in the last-16. Just eight players remain as he prepares to face Estonia’s Richard Teder on Friday.
“Yeah, very happy, obviously,” said the County Louth man. “A little bit of relief, like match play, anything can happen. You could be a couple up with a couple to play, and you just never know. Just happy to get into the clubhouse and into the final eight.”
Tiernan never trailed in his last-16 match going two up through three holes after a pair of pars on the 2nd and 3rd.
He was pegged back to all square by Glaudas after he dropped shots on the fourth and sixth but a birdie on the par-5 7th saw him move one ahead again.
A par on 11 saw the 19-year-old double his advantage before a birdie on the 14th put him three up with four to play and he saw the job through.
Pace putting was key for Tiernan as Royal St George’s firmed up in the scorching temperatures.
“Definitely my pace putting was good. These greens are so undulating that there’s a lot of difficult pin positions, so your pace putting needs to be dialed. Also iron play, you need to be very mindful of where you’re hitting it on the greens because you could hit it on the green and be in a very tricky spot. So hitting it to certain parts of the greens. I feel like my distance control was very good, which I think are all keys to playing this or any golf course well.
“It’s 100 per cent firmed up today. I’ve noticed a couple of shots, like short wedges that are releasing 20, 30 yards, even from the fairway. You have to change that up a little bit, but you just change your number a little bit. I’m used to it — again, coming from links, I know how to do that, and I’m comfortable doing that. When you’re 140 and you’re hitting a lob wedge, it feels a bit weird, but I’m used to being able to trust that, and seeing it before and stuff like that definitely helped me this week.”
Tiernan pre-qualified for the Amateur Championship earlier this week and was the leading Irishman after 36-holes of stroke play. Having played close to 90 holes already this week, he knows rest is as important as practice.
“I was really vigilant making sure I prioritized my rest and my hydration and stuff like that. I feel like that’s the stuff when it comes down to the very end, that’s what kind of makes the difference rather than hitting an extra 15, 20 balls on the range. I feel like you don’t get as much out of that as you do getting more rest or being hydrated.”
Some big names were knocked out on Thursday morning including leading qualifier Connor Graham and much fancied Englishman Dominic Clemons.
World number seven Ethan Fang is the highest ranked player remaining in the Amateur Championship. Tiernan is ranked outside the top-1000 and has a tough challenge against 138th ranked Teder.
“I’m just taking it hole by hole, one shot at a time. That’s kind of been my motto this week, just one shot at a time. No matter how the rest of the tournament goes, once I know that I gave it my all, I think that’s all that really matters.”
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