Solid opener gives Sugrue chance of making cut

KILLARNEY’S Danny Sugrue enjoyed the greatest day of his 26- year-old life at Troon yesterday when he achieved a cherished ambition of teeing it up in the Open Championship.

For ten holes, he performed like an old master instead of somebody who has yet to play in a significant professional tournament. He was one under par at the time and even if the homeward run took its toll and he eventually signed for a 74, it was a gutsy display of which he can be very proud. He’s here courtesy of coming through the pre-qualifying exercises at Baltray and Western Gailes and making the very best of this wonderful if rather unexpected opportunity.

“It was a bit of everything really”, he related. “I was nervous on the first tee but not too bad. I hit a five iron but thought of a nine because of everything that was going on. There was a big crowd around there, Jim Furyk was out in front of me and Tom Lehman was behind me, winners of major championships, so I just concentrated on keeping my head down and not getting involved.”

After six solid pars, Sugrue had his first and only birdie at the 7th where he knocked in a putt of 25 feet. Three solid pars left him standing on the 11th tee at one under but as with so many others, he fell foul of this fearsome 490 yarder with the railway line on the right and furze bushes lining both sides of the fairway.

“I hit it right into a bush and took an unplayable”, he explained. “I was trying then for a bogey and hit a good pitch and it went past ten, fifteen feet and I missed the putt. But that was alright. I was expecting to make bogey, double bogey somewhere. I also bogeyed the 13th but I was confident facing the rest of them because there wasn’t that much wind. At the 17th, I hit my five iron tee shot into a bunker. I saw Ernie Els in it this morning and he took two to get out so I wasn’t feeling too good walking up to it. I beat him by one shot on that one anyway. I carved my drive at the 18th and actually played a provisional but found the first one, was given line of sight relief from the grandstand and hit an eight iron pin high on the right and got up and down with a great chip and five foot putt.”

He is currently in a share of 97th place and still there with every chance of getting among the seventy and ties who survive into the week-end after today’s second round.