New Zealander Steven Alker, coming in off back-to-back victories on the PGA Tour Champions, is on course to complete a hat-trick by claiming the NI Legends as he holds a one-stroke lead at the top after a tough and blustery day at Galgorm.
Despite dropping a shot at the first, Alker – a 13-time PGA Tour Champions winner – bounced back to make the turn at two-under and then closed out the round with three consecutive birdies to edge past the quartet of Thomas Gögele, Bradley Dredge, Mark Brown and David Drysdale.
“This is my fourth week in a row — normally three’s my max — but it’s great to be here and playing another week,” said Alker. “I think my game is just getting sharper as I play each week. My putting’s solid, I’m driving the ball pretty well. When you do those two things, you’re going to score okay.
“When you’re in a stretch like this, you don’t really think about it — you just focus on your process. You’re playing the game, things feel good, so you try to stick to the same things and maintain them. I feel like I’m doing that pretty well — the swing hasn’t changed too much over the last few weeks. So it’s just about keeping those feelings, not thinking about winning — that’s hard sometimes — and just going out and enjoying the game.”
It was largely a day of frustration for the three Irishmen in the field, though only 23 of the 60-man field ended the day in red figures.
Gary Murphy was out in the second group of the day and felt he struck the ball really well before bogeying two of his final three holes to post a two-over 74.
I played lovely, played really controlled, and kept the ball in front of me. I was never really in any danger, and turned at one-under,” he explained. “But yeah, two-over, but I felt like I left three or four shots out there so I’ve got to improve on that tomorrow.”
Cameron Clark, playing in his first ever event in the town in which he was born and spent his first four years, later joined Murphy on that number.
“Yeah, I didn’t have my best day today,” he said afterwards. “It was a tough day. It was very blustery, and, you know, I just didn’t quite have it today and didn’t hole a thing. But you know, we just move on to tomorrow.”
Damian Mooney finished the strongest, but he’d fallen to +5 before birdieing two of the final six. He was millimeters from making it all three Irishmen at +2 as his slippery birdie putt on the last, following an excellent approach, just missed on the right side.
“The breeze was the major factor,” Mooney said. “The rain wasn’t too bad unless you get caught somewhere at a bad time, but no, the breeze was a factor, clubbing was a factor, and I struggled a wee bit on the crosswind left or right.”
Round two gets underway at 07:45 – tickets for the event are free, CLICK HERE to register to attend.
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