Tracy Eakin holds a share of the lead after day one of the Senior Women’s Amateur Championship at Walton Heath after the Dooks woman’s one-under 73 on the New Course.
Malahide’s Alison Taylor is next best of the Irish, sharing 14th at +3, with Deirdre Walsh of Milltown and Laura Webb of Royal Portrush at +4 and +5 respectively.
Jody Fanagan is best placed of the men after the opening round of the R&A’s Senior Amateur Men’s Championship, and the Milltown man lies in a tie for 10th, one shot ahead of David Mulholland and Alan Condren.
Fanagan traded three birdies with two bogeys on the day, while Condren birdied two of his final three holes to turn in a level-par 72. But it will be Mulholland who’ll be the happier of the three despite being level with Condren and a shot and nine places behind Fanagan. That’s because Mulholland bogeyed four of his first seven holes but staged an impressive recovery over the remaining 11 to claw his way back to level-par.
Grange’s Declan O’Neill sits at +1, with Tony Cleary of East Clare and Ronan Culligan of Saucon Valley at +3 and just the wrong side of the provisional cutline which sees the top 50 and ties advance after 36 holes.
Bob Royak has been trying to win the R&A Senior Amateur Championship since he made his debut at Sunningdale in 2017. He’ll get his chance this week if he continues to play as he did around Walton Heath’s Old Course on the opening day of this year’s championship.
The Alpharetta, Georgia native returned a best of the day five-under-par 67 and leads the field by two shots.
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