A stellar back nine from John-Ross Galbraith has the Antrim man tied for the lead heading into the final round, in what was a great day for the Irish at Slaley Hall on the Clutch pro tour.
After a two-over-par front nine, Galbraith carded five birdies on the back nine to come home in 31 and sign for a three-under-par 69.
Galbraith told Irish Golfer that he’s delighted with his work over the first two days.
“I’ve played great the first two days. My long game has been really solid. I hit a lot of fairways and greens and gave myself a lot of good birdie chances and I’ve rolled a few nice putts. I’ve left a few shots out there on the greens with a couple of three putts and a couple of short birdie putts missed but, overall I’ve played really solid tee to green, gave myself a ton of chances. I haven’t been out of position too much”.
The Northern Irishman said time away from competition golf is starting to pay off this week.
“I took a couple of weeks off the past few weeks to work on a few things in my game and it’s really paid dividends the last few days. Hopefully I can keep that going into tomorrow, just keep doing what I’m doing, my game is in great shape”.
“I need to enjoy being in the final group, enjoy being in contention, soak in the atmosphere. I’m really looking forward to it”.
Galbraith is tied for the lead on -9 with England’s Gary King, with an all-English quartet one stroke further back, but the Whitehead man is not the only Irishman in with a chance as Cameron Raymond and Stuart Grehan are both well in contention at seven-under-par and tied for seventh place.
Raymond shot a three-under-par 69 which included an eagle on the par 5 fourth. Grehan also eagled the fourth on the way to a bogey free five-under 67.
The duo are paired together in the final round and will look to chase down the leaders who enjoy a two-stroke advantage on the well-bunched leaderboard.
Conor O’Rourke added a 69 to his first round 70 to sit on tied for 16th at five-under-under, but Rowan Lester missed the cut by a single stroke after a pair of 72’s left him on level-par, as did Daniel Mulligan whose second-round 71 left him on +2.
John Hickey, Daniel Brennan, Simon Bryan and Tom Dowdall all missed out as well after they were unable to recover from opening rounds that had put them in difficult positions.
Cameron Raymond and Stuart Grehan get their final round underway at 9.28am and John-ross Galbraith tees off in the final group at 9.48am.
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