Cormac Sharvin followed an opening round of 68 on The K Club’s Palmer North Course with another round of -4 on the Palmer South, setting a clubhouse target that nobody could touch and made it back-to-back victories in Europe’s largest Pro-Am.
The Ardglass native, representing Elm Park, had a sluggish start to round two but despite a couple of early misses for birdie and one for par, he recovered to birdie the ninth – his seventh – and then followed up with another on 10 to move into red figures.
By this stage, he’d pushed his way to the top of the leaderboard and firmly took control over a three-hole stretch starting on 13. Birdies on each of these par-4s saw him move to -8, and a great par save on 16 kept his momentum up. Mid-range birdie chances came and went over the closing few holes, but the target would prove too low for the chasing pack who were mostly tackling the North Course in the afternoon.
“It’s probably the best I struck it all year,” he said afterwards. “I’ve been struggling a little with my approach play all year and I’ve been putting a lot of work into it. I feel like I’ve kind of got it to click a little bit the last week or so and to be honest, both days I had pretty good control of the golf ball.
“There are two great golf courses and I feel like they suit my game because I generally drive it pretty well and now I feel like I’ve got a handle on my approach play.
“We’re used to playing shorter courses, so yeah, I feel like the K Club’s always a nice place to come.”
With a four-stroke cushion over the afternoon starters, he still felt that he could be reeled in given the strength of the chasing pack, though he admitted that he’d set a tough target all the same.
“I think I’ve given them something to shoot for anyway,” he shrugged. “I do think the North Course is a little bit harder with the rough up for the Irish Open in a few weeks so they’ve got to shoot a good score to beat me and if they do, fair play.
“I know we’ve got the likes of Johnny Caldwell – he’s obviously a European Tour winner – and Simon Thornton – he’s obviously been in hot form – Georgia Hall of course, and Ronan Mullarney has proven that he can go low as well.
“So yeah, I’m just going to have an afternoon looking at my phone.”
In the end, the penal rough on the Palmer North Course prevented Caldwell, Thornton, and Mullarney from seriously eating into Sharvin’s advantage, but Hall remained hot on his heels.
Three birdies in her opening six holes was an ideal start, but bogeys at nine and 11 left her an uphill task. She responded in perfect fashion to birdie the next two, but another bogey on 14 left her with too much to do.
She closed out the day with another brace to birdies to claim solo second at -6, two behind Sharvin, and two ahead of Caldwell, Paul McBride, Philip Kelly and Jonathan Yates who was one of just three players along with Hall and Sharvin to shoot under-par rounds on both days.
Along with the tournament trophy, Sharvin collects the €20,000 winner’s cheque, with Hall earning €10,000 for finishing runner-up and McBride, Caldwell, Kelly and Yates each taking home €4,000.
First place overall in the team competition went to the team of Scott Kelly, Simon Killeen, Luke Woods and professional Andrew Hogan of Edmondstown, with David Fitzgerald, Pat Bennett, Colm Fitzgerald and pro Padraig McGrath taking second and John Earls, Chris Doyle, John Doyle and pro Ronan Mullarney finishing third.
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