Conor O’Rourke and Simon Thornton couldn’t be separated at the top of the leaderboard at the Irish Life Druids Glen Pro-Am on Thursday.
Both players carded two-under-par rounds of 70 to share the spoils with a one shot margin over Niall Kearney, Colm Moriarty and Cian Geraghty on a tricky day for scoring.
Neither player was able to get things going on the front nine and both turned in one-over but O’Rourke clicked into gear with three birdies in four holes on the 11th, 13th and 14th before Thornton posted three birdies in five holes on his back nine to reach two-under.
Both players missed chances for late birdies, particularly PGA in Ireland captain Thornton who couldn’t get up and down from pin high right of the 18th green which meant both players were joint winners.
It’s a first win for O’Rourke in his first full season competing on the region.
“The front nine was quite windy so I was just hanging on and trying to make pars to be honest. Missed a couple of chances but was happy just to keep it tight. Got on a nice little run on the back nine towards the end and made the scorecard look a bit cleaner which was nice.
“I knew Simon had a couple of chances and he’s a gutsy player and would push hard. It was a good tournament.
“I’m just really enjoying it, I’ve been so welcomed, really enjoyed the first few events and hopefully lots more to come. It’s a nice start and there’s a lot of lads who are hard to beat but I am enjoying being back playing, didn’t do a whole lot last year I was busy with coaching so I feel refreshed and have a buzz for playing again which is nice.”
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