An imperious three-under round of 70 saw Cormac Sharvin open up a two-stroke advantage after day one of the 36-hole Donegal Pro-Am at Donegal Golf Club in Murvagh.
The Ardglass native who currently plies his trade out of Elm Park made light of the early rain and took advantage of the scoring holes, birdieing four of the par-5s and the short par-4 11th after crushing his drive to just short of the green on the 380-yard hole that was playing heavily downwind.
A bogey on the 18th – playing directly into the wind – failed to dampen the spirits of the former DP World Tour pro, and he was rightly pleased with his opening effort.
“Very solid,” was his post-round assessment. “I played really nicely, drove the ball really well, had a couple of bad drives coming in into the wind, but for the most part I put it in the fairway and gave myself a lot of chances.
“I took care of the par-5s, which is important out here, especially on a day like this, obviously there’s quite a lot of wind, so you’re trying to take care of the easier downwind holes and then kind of just grind out pars when you’re coming back into the wind and I did that pretty well today.”
It was actually Sharvin’s first ever round at Donegal Golf Club, and he’s looking forward to the (hopefully) dry day that’s forecast for Saturday’s final round.
“We got pretty wet for the first six or seven holes today which wasn’t nice, but the rain stopped,” he said. “It was still windy, but the lads I’m playing with are saying that it’s to be nice tomorrow afternoon, so that’ll be a nice change.”
His nearest challengers are Massereene’s David Hughes, Richard Kilpatrick of Banbridge and Richard O’Donovan from Impact Golf at Leopardstown. Kilpatrick and O’Donovan shot the low rounds of the afternoon, the former carding 15 pars, two birdies and just the one bogey, while O’Donovan finished birdie-birdie as they both carded one-under 72s to move alongside Hughes in joint second place.
“It was really windy,” O’Donovan said afterwards. “I felt it was like a four-club wind. There were two holes where I had 200 yards in and actually hit a 9- and 8-iron into them. So that just tells you what it was like downwind, then, I think I hit my 2-iron maybe 160 or 170 yards into the wind, so it was very difficult.
“There’s a lot of holes either straight downwind or straight into, so it’s just about controlling your spin and controlling your ball flight.”
O’Donovan will have the benefit of an early tee time in Saturday’s final round, but he’s expecting Sharvin to prove a hard man to catch regardless.
“I expect Cormac to probably shoot another good round tomorrow, but it’s not easy out there right now. It’ll be interesting to see what somebody can shoot.”
Nobody made fewer bogeys than Kilpatrick, who was thrilled with how he handled the challenging conditions.
“I’m delighted,” he said after finishing late in the evening. “Yeah, it was very difficult out there. The wind really gusted at times and we got the odd wee rainy squall but, yeah, I’m absolutely delighted.
“I’m really looking forward to tomorrow – I think it’s going to be similar wind strength but a better day and a little warmer and you never know what can happen on a links course. You can get the odd good break and the odd back break, so if you’re patient and can hole a few good putts at the right time, get up-and-down at the right time, you never know what can happen.”
Cloverhill’s Keith Shannon, Fraser Thomson from Adare Manor and Joe Dillon of Joe the Pro Academy share fourth place at level-par, with a further five sharing seventh in a group that contains Niall Kearney and Brendan McCarroll – both of whom are joining Shannon at Open Championship Final Qualifying on Monday – and Michael McGeady who retains hope of gaining access as the 19th reserve at present.
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