Liam Abom is one step closer to next month’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale after he topped the regional qualifier at The Island.
The Edmondstown amateur skipped around the links in just 64 blows to sit at the summit on eight-under, two shots ahead of former Open participant Alex Maguire.
Abom will tee it up in next week’s final qualifying.
Also joining him and Maguire is Dundalk PGA Professional Cian Geraghty who continued his fine form with a four-under 68 to share third place with Welshman Jake Hapgood and Switzerland’s Patrick Foley.
Carton House amateur Jordan Boles also moved on to next week’s final qualifier in a share of sixth place with Ruaidhri McGee while David Howard, Sam Kelly, Oscar Murphy, Hugh Foley, Mark Gazi and John Murphy lost out in a playoff to Austrian Christoph Bleier.
Howard, who was a reserve for last week’s Amateur Championship but didn’t get the nod, will play the waiting game again but should get in to the final qualifier as fifth reserve.
Meanwhile, in the lesser known Craigielaw, Powerscourt amateur Adam Allahbachani missed out on a place in the final qualifier in a playoff.
He carded an early five-under 66 but on a day of low scoring with just seven spots up for grabs he narrowly missed out and is 31st reserve.
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