The weather forecasters don’t often get it right on the west coast, but unfortunately, today was one of the few days they did and Storm Dave’s arrival meant that the second strokeplay qualifying round had to be abandoned at the Connolly Motor Group West of Ireland Championship at County Sligo Golf Club.
This means that scores revert back to the 18-hole totals, and the leading 64 players advance to Sunday’s first knockout stage, with Lahinch’s Jonathan Keane, the reigning South of Ireland champion, taking the number one seed thanks to his blistering 66 on day one.
Play did start, and more than half of the field had completed their second rounds but as conditions continued to deteriorate and the winds approached gale-force, it became impossible for players to mark their balls on several greens and Golf Ireland officials were left with no choice but to call a halt and scrap the day’s results.
All players had been notified in advance that this was a strong possibility and knew what the outcome would be in the event, so it was lucky for some and not so lucky for others, but most of the pre-tournament favourites are safely through and there are some mouthwatering round of 64 ties in store.
Keane, as number one seed, will square off against Rosses Point native Sean Flanagan – a former North of Ireland Championship winner – who currently represents Portmarnock.
“Hopefully the weather will be better and we’ll hopefully have a great match,” Keane said. “It’s great to be leading qualifier – it’s excellent – but at the end of the day, the trophy you want is the West trophy, so we’ll see how it goes.”
Other matches of note see 2022 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion and 2024 Irish Amateur Open winner, Matt McClean against Balbriggan’s Robbie Cannon, strokeplay runner-up Aodhagan Brady versus reigning East of Ireland champion David Howard, and defending champion Dylan Holmes taking on Paul O’Hanlon, who finished runner-up to Rory McIlroy here 20 years ago.
Keane will be first on the tee at 07:30, with the final round of 64 match scheduled to tee off at 12:09, with the round of 32 following immediately afterwards.
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