Irish trio miss out on Lytham

None of the three Irish players involved in yesterday’s qualifying rounds over the New and Old courses at Sunningdale made it through to next month’s British Open Championship at Royal Lytham St Annes.

It was a particularly disappointing day for Paul McGinley, who has been in outstanding form of late and on Sunday tied for third in the BMW International in Cologne, missing out on a play-off by a single shot. However, he was unable to reproduce that form at Sunningdale, a course he lives beside in the Surrey stockbroker belt.

A first round of 75 left with him little or no chance of getting among the 10 going forward to Lytham and with preserving his energy for this week’s Irish Open at Royal Portrush very much in mind, he decided against going out in the afternoon.

Shane Lowry shot rounds of 69 and 68 for a two under par total of 137, two strokes outside the cut-off mark. The Offaly man also has his sights firmly set on the Irish Open and in spite of yesterday’s disappointment, expressed himself quietly confident about the immediate future.

“I’ve had 22 birdies in my last four competitive rounds and still only finished level par for them,” he stated. “I had 11 birdies in the two rounds at Sunningdale but obviously made too many mistakes. I just need to cut them out and I’ll be cruising.”

Peter Lawrie hit the headlines when coming through a similar exercise for the US Open but this time there was little joy for the Dubliner who scored 72 and 69 to finish two over par.