By Alan Kelly
Galway Golf
Club’s Ronan Mullarney leads the Flogas Irish amateur Open following a new
course record 62 at County Sligo Golf Club yesterday. On 9 under par, Mullarney
starts his second round at 1.25pm four shots clear of his nearest challenger,
with Luke O’Neill from Connemara in a group on 4 under. David Kitt from Athenry
is 1 under and Galway Golf Club’s Eddie McCormack is level par.
With nine birdies on his card, a course record 62 and a four-stroke lead at the close of play, the opening day of the Flogas Irish Amateur Open belonged to Galway’s Ronan Mullarney.
By the time he stepped on to the 16th tee, he had just reeled off five birdies in a row. Seamless as it seemed, Mullarney could feel the tension rising as he neared the finish line.
“There’s no point lying, I was nervous coming in there,” Mullarney admitted after signing off on a magical round, the lowest of his career. “I had a nice stretch in the middle from 11 to 15, I birdied them all. I’ve played here a lot. I know the place really well.”
By hitting each green in regulation over the closing stretch, Mullarney kept the stress to a minimum. He finished with three straight pars to set a new mark at Rosses Point, breaking the course record by two shots.
“I don’t like to hide from the fact if I’m going well,” said Mullarney, winner of the Irish Student Championship at Tralee in 2018. “If it comes to the last day and there are a few people following me, I know I’m doing well. There’s no point hiding from it. Hopefully, I have to deal with it at some stage.”
Mullarney, 23, made four birdies in his first nine but his outward tally of 32 seemed modest when set against his homeward run. Beginning at the 11th, he made five birdies on the trot.
By the time he reached the 13th green, the photographers had Mullarney in their sights. He duly holed another birdie putt, his longest of the round, from 40 feet.
“Even the pros say it’s hard to follow a good round,” Mullarney reflected. “I will try my best to take each shot as it comes. Tomorrow is a different day and hopefully, the putts will drop.”
A student at Maynooth University, where he is in the final year of a Master’s in Strategy and Innovation, Mullarney won his first Ireland cap at the Home Internationals last year. Four times he has placed in the top 10 this season, although the omens were troubling him after he teed-off in the opening round.
“I was leading at the Irish Students in Bray a couple of years ago,” Mullarney recalled. “And I said to Pat [Cashman], ‘How am I going?’ He said: ‘When I start to come out, you know you’re doing something well.’ I knew I was going fairly okay then.”
Cashman, golf snapper supreme, had timed his arrival to perfection. Mullarney went on to birdie 14 and 15 before finishing with those regulation pars.
“The whole day didn’t start well,” Mullarney revealed. “I lost my wallet this morning. I forgot my battery leaving the house and I plonked it in the bunker on the first.”
Undeterred, Mullarney plotted his way to an opening par. He holed from 15 feet, completing his up and down from 70 yards. He did not look back.
The Galway man birdied the next two holes from inside 10 feet and, although gaining further ground at the fifth, felt in need of more returns. Charlie Strickland, playing alongside, had already reached five under: “After the 7th, I was two behind Charlie [Strickland]. That was good. We were kind of feeding off each other. I was thinking that I needed to hole something because he was pulling away.”
By the close, Mullarney was in the clear. He holds a four-stroke lead going into round two.
Three players share second place overnight: Scottish pair Robbie Muir and Euan Walker are locked together with England’s James Newton on five under.
Next best of the home challengers are Connemara teenager Luke O’Neill, who made six birdies in a four-under 67, and Massereene’s Tiarnán McLarnon, who went bogey-free.
Luke O’Neill teed-off this earlier this morning, Galway’s Eddie McCormack is teeing-off at 2:42pm and Athenry’s David Kitt is set to tee-off at 3:04pm
