Tommy O’Driscoll.

Castlehaven native Tommy O’Driscoll came agonisingly close to his first professional win on Tuesday when he lost out in a three way play off at the Gecko Tour in Estepona in Spain.  This was O’Driscoll’s second event on the Gecko Tour, he finished 21^st last week in Marbellla when fellow Irishman Dermot McElroy finished in second place.

O’Driscoll shot one his lowest rounds as a pro, his seven under par round of 64 match the lowest score of the tournament and catapulted him up the leaderboard.  Tommy’s first round score of 68 saw him start the second day just outside the top ten.  Despite shooting the low round of the day, Tommy wasn’t overly happy with his own performance on the front nine: “I didn’t play great golf for the front nine, just scrambled by way around and got it going in the back nine”.

Tommy had a great back nine, knocking in five birdies in seven holes.  His scrambling on the front nine is worthy of a mention too, after a bogey on the second hole he added three birdies to get back into the red for the day.  He lost out on the second hole of the sudden death play-off, with Spain’s Jordi Garcia del Moral taking the honours in the three way shoot out.  This was the teenagers first time in a play-off and despite the fact that he admitted to being nervous he did concede that overall it was a very good experience.

The Gecko Tour has a novel format, the 36 hole events are held over two days with the events coming in quick succession.  In January there were seven separate events scheduled between the 9^th and the 31^st, all located in southern Spain.