Damian Mooney said it was a “delight” when he was informed that his birdie on Galgorm Castle’s 18th hole in round two would earn him an additional 45 minutes or so in bed on Sunday morning.
The birdie, which was the Belfast native’s fifth of the day and sealed a four-under round of 68, lifted him out of a 10-way tie for 31st and into a share of 27th – an impressive rise up the leaderboard on a day where the scoring was lower than round one but not as low as Mooney expected.
“The weather was calmer, obviously, that’s different I suppose,” he replied when asked how his 68 differed from the opening 75. “I hit a lot of better shots today – a couple of crosswind holes that caught me out [yesterday] didn’t catch me out today, so I parred those which helped, and I had a good run.
“I got off to an awfully bad with a three-putt at the first and didn’t birdie the first two par-5s with being on the green or around the edge of the green, so it was a bit poorer that way, but it seemed to click a wee bit coming in. I had two ‘2s’, and I birdied the last which is always nice.”
The nicety of birdieing the last was extended by the news that he’d get a little bit of a longer lie in as he’s commuting from Ballyliffin – a roughly one-hour-and-forty-five-minute drive – but he feels there’s value in the time spent behind the wheel.
“It’s a bit of a commute, alright, but it’s nice time in the car,” he said. “Put on the radio and decompress. I have no problem spending time in the car. Yeah, it’s ok.”
He paid tribute to the quality and conditioning of the golf course, particularly the greens, and feels that holing putts was crucial to his rise up the leaderboard.
“Yeah, the greens are pure, they’re lovely,” he said. “If you can get a line with a wee bit of commitment, you’ll hole putts and yeah, you’ll move up. I thought, you know, just being me, I thought overnight that if I shot level-par, I’d tread water so I needed to shoot under-par.
“And when I did eventually get a couple of birdies, it helped.”
Leave a comment