Peter O’Keeffe shot a one under par 70 on the opening day of the Flogas Irish Amateur Open. Royal County Down was playing firm and fast today thanks to the recent dry weather and it proved a test for the Irish golfers as only seven made it into the top 25. O’Keeffe started brightly with a birdie on the first but dropped shots on 4 and 8 meant that he turned on +1. There were no more bogies for the Douglas member, and he birdied the 10th and 12th before parring his way home. He’s in a tie for 8th place and three shots off the lead.
Turner leads in Ballykisteen, Great National Hotels Irish Masters R2
Ian O’Rourke is the next best Cork golfer but there’s a gap of over 50 players between him and O’Keeffe. The Cobh native had been going well, he was two under to the 14th but dropped five shots in the closing holes. That included a triple on the 15th which saw it’s fair share of bogies, doubles and triples on the opening day. Kinsale’s John Murphy is one shot back from O’Rourke on +4, his card featured four birdies and nine pars but the four bogies, a double and a triple took the gloss from his debut round at the Irish Amateur. Cathal Butler (+6) and James Sugrue (+9) will hoping for an improvement tomorrow.
Scoring: Flogas Irish Amateur Open
Play in the second round gets underway at 7.00am when Ian O’Rourke will lead the field of 144 golfers. Live scoring updates are available from Golfnet.
Monkstown’s Sean Desmond made it through to the matchplay stage on his debut in the West of Ireland Championship today. Desmond shot a second successive 73 at Co Sligo and finished inside the top twenty. Sean had a colourful card today, five bogies and a double were offset by five birdies on the testing links track. Tomorrow he has a 7.27am start where he’ll face Robert Brazill from Naas.
John Murphy rued a disappointing front nine in St Andrews today as dropped one spot to finish second at the R&A Scholars Tournament. After 36 holes on the Eden Course in St Andrew’s on Monday, Murphy led the field by two shots. By doing so he started the third round in the final grouping on the famous Old Course. Scoring was difficult on the normally manageable links, tough winds meant that there were several returns in the high seventies and eighties. Murphy suffered on the greens on the way out, with an uncharacteristic number of three putts and a rare double bogey. He turned on +5 for the day to drop himself back into the field and two more bogies followed on the 11th and 12th holes. To his credit, Murphy bounced back with three birdies on his last seven holes and the turn-around in form meant that he finished in a tie for second place. John’s Maynooth teammate Stuart Grehan carded a very tidy level par 72 to win the tournament by three shots.
John Murphy (Kinsale, Maynooth University) continued his good form as he produced to rounds of 68 and 64 to lead the R&A Scholars Tournament in St Andrews. Both of today’s rounds were played on The Eden Course and Murphy bagged no less than 12 birdies in his 36 holes. Murphy (-8) shot the low round of the afternoon and holds a one shot lead as he goes into tomorrow’s final round. The final round takes place on the fabled Old Course, and Murphy will have the honour of playing in the final group. Murphy will be joined by Cloe Ryan (UCD) who won the ladies section in 2016. Sinead Sexton and Molly Dowling are in the top five and in the mens section Stuart Grehan is three of the lead and Robin Dawson is a further to shots back. Murphy won the Munster Students Championship in Cork Golf Club last week, posting the best score over the first 36 holes in the weather affected tournament.
John Murphy claimed the inaugural Munster Students title in Cork Golf Club today, the Kinsale golfer won on the result at 36 holes after play was cancelled on the final day. Snow and heavy rain rendered the course unplayable and after consulting with course staff, Tournament Director Dave Prendergast had no option but to cancel the final round with the results from 36 holes declared. Murphy finished on a total of 138 (-6) for the 36 holes, four shots clear of James McVicker (Knock) who took second place. Third place went to Cathal Butler (Kinsale), and holder Jack McDonnell (Forrest Little) was fourth, both golfers also finished on -2.
John Murphy (Kinsale/MU) lies just one shot off the lead after day one in the Munster Students Championship at Cork Golf Club. The Munster Boys champion finished on two under after carding four birdies and two bogies. The lead is held by Stefan Greenberg (Tandragee) and David Foy (Laytown & Bettystown)on three under, while holder Jack McDonnell (Forrest Little/MU) is just one shot off the lead.
Many of Ireland’s top young golfers will be heading for Cork next week for the inaugural staging of the Munster Students Championship. The newly named Championship replaces the Munster Youths and it features a new ladies competition along with a team competition. Munster Strokeplay Champion Cathal Butler will be joined by Munster Boys Champion John Murphy, and the Kinsale golfers will lead the strong local challenge. Both Murphy and Butler are representing Maynooth University and the home of the Harrington Scholars golf programme will travel in force. Also wearing the MU colours will be Jack McDonnell won the Munster Youths title in Monkstown last year. The team competition will see many colleges enter multiple teams, with the best two scores counting from the three person team. In the ladies competition, local hopes will rest with Muskerry’s Jean O’Driscoll (UCC) and Douglas’ Aiofe Ni Thuama 
Kinsale’s John Murphy capped off a great year last week when he announced that he would be heading to the US in the second half of 2017 on a golf scholarship. Later this year Murphy will head for Kentucky to take up a place with the Cardinals at the University of Louisville. Murphy will join Galway’s Devin Morley who started in Louisville in 2016, and Assistant Coach Aaron O’Callaghan who is in his third year coaching at the division one college.
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