John Murphy eagled his second last hole of the day today to jump into the lead after two rounds of strokeplay qualifying at the European Boys Team Championships in Czech Republic. After opening with a bogey, John added two birdies to turn on -1. He played steady par golf all the way back until a great eagle on the par five 17th saw him move to -3 and jump into the lead. It was another good day for Ireland as they took four of the first five spots, and finished 23 shots ahead of second placed.
Murphy’s second round 69 followed a level par opening round and his two rounds will put him in good stead for tomorrow’s opening matchplay phase. Ireland face Switzerland in the morning with second place Iceland facing Slovakia in the other semi-final.
The winner and runner-up teams of Divison 2 will be promoted to the European Boys’ Team Championship, which will be played at La Manga Club, Spain, in 2017. Murphy will partner Kilkenny’s Mark Power in the first of the two foursomes pairs, and the afternoon will see five singles matches being played to decide who goes trough to the semi-final.
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John Murphy (Kinsale) shot a level par 72 on the opening day of the European Boy’s Team Championships today. The competition is taking place in Czech Republic and Murphy was one of the later starters this morning and opened with birdie. He had three bogies on the front nine but turned on +1, two birdies and a bogey on the back nine meant that he signed for a level par 72 to lie in 5th place. It was a very good day for Ireland, Kevin leBlanc holds the lead on -4 and all six Irish golfers are in the top 20. Tomorrow will be an important day for the Irish, the second round of strokeplay qualifying will determine the matchplay draws with the top four countries playing-off for the Championship title.
Neither James Sugrue or John Murphy managed to overcome Neil McKinstry’s lead in the Irish Youths yesterday although they both finished inside the top ten. Murphy was in second place, two shots off the lead going into the final round and Sugure was just one shot behind Murphy.
Kinsale’s John Murphy shot the low round of the day in Galway today to move into second place at the Irish Youths. Murphy shot a one under par 69 to see him finish on level par after 36 holes, and two off the lead held by Neil McKinstry. Murphy had plenty of colour on his card with four bogies and five birdies, but it was enough to jump him 10 spots up the leaderboard. Munster’s Robin Dawson also matched Murphy’s 69 and he’s one shot back on +1. Mallow’s James Sugrue is also within touch of the lead, he added a 73 to his opening 68 and is tied with Dawson on +1 in 4th place. Darragh O’Connor (Fota Island) added another 72 and he’s in 14th place, six shots off the lead. Cathal Butler (39th) is currently 10 shots off the lead and 
Cathal Butler is the last Cork golfer left in the Irish Close at Ballyliffin, winning both of his matches today. The Irish international and Munster Strokeplay winner beat Jonathan Yates 3&2 this morning and followed that with a 19th hole win over John Cleary. Butler faces Jake Whelan in the second match tomorrow morning and is off at 8.09am.
It’s been 30 years since anyone has managed to win back to back titles, and today John Murphy waited until the 19th hole to grasp back the trophy that he proudly won last year.
Holder John Murphy will face last year’s semi-finalist Sean Desmond in an all Cork semi-final at the Kerry Boys in Ballybunion. The Kinsale and Monkstown golfers extended their stay in Ballybunion as they both won two rounds of matchplay golf today on the Cashen course. Brian O’Connell and Eric Rumley lost out in this morning’s first round while Mark Healy got through the the quarter final. Healy lost out this afternoon after a close match with Nenagh’s Scott O’Brien. O’Brien will face home place Ronan Cross in the other semi-final. There was little joy for Cork golfer in the plate, Charleville’s Cathal O’Carroll is the only remaining Cork representative.
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