It was a day of mixed emotions for the nine Irish competing in the R&A Boy’s Amateur Championship at Glasgow Gailes, with four, led by Harry O’Hara, advancing to the knockout stages.
The field of 144 was whittled down to 64 after 36 holes of strokeplay, and Clandeboye’s O’Hara shot one of the rounds of the day to shoot up the leaderboard. He made five birdies in a bogey-free 66 to climb into a share of sixth place at -5 and takes the number eight seed into the round of 64 where the 17-year-old will face 18-year-old Swede Ludwig Libera.
Portmarnock’s Adam Fahey was the leading Irishman on day one after a three-under 68 and he followed up with a one-under 70 to finish on -4 and he meets Mikulas Vojtesek of the Czech Republic.
Isaac Oliver of Glasson shot a level-par opener and was one-over at the turn in round two but reeled off three consecutive birdies on the back nine and recorded a one-under 70 to take the 38th seed. His opponent will be Ben Sessions of England.
Ballyhaunis’ John William Burke opened with a two-over 73 and was the wrong side of the bubble with two holes to go but birdied the 17th to get back to level-par and that was enough to see him qualify on countback thanks to his impressive second round. He’ll square off against 15-year-old Qatari Daniil Sokolov who shot a five-under 66 on day one.
While Burke benefitted from countback being used to decide breaks of tie, Galgorm Castle’s Harris Fleming’s tale was the opposite. A two-over 73 dropped him back to level-par, but he finished in 67th place.
One shot further back was Portmarnock’s John Moran who bogeyed the last when a par would’ve been enough to see him take the 64th and final spot and set up a tie with number one seed Cole Self of England.
Tadhg Murphy of Millicent, Carrick-on-Shannon’s Patrick Martin, and Finn Jolly of Dun Laoghaire also missed out.
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