Murphy best of Irish quartet following first round 73

GARY MURPHY, the 30 years-old Kilkenny man, leads the Irish quartet after the first round of the Open Championship.

Even though buffeted by winds that gusted up to 35 miles per hour, Murphy brought in a very creditable 73, two over par, to confirm the highly impressive form he showed at the week-end when he finished 4th in the Scottish Open to pick up just under 160,000 and clinch his European Tour card for next year.

If anything, Paul McGinley was treated even more harshly by the weather and could do no better than 77.

Murphy set his round off nicely with a solid par at the troublesome first followed by a 15 footer for birdie at the second. He gave that back immediately with three putts at the third from 30 feet but got under par again at the long 7th where he cracked a four iron to twenty five feet and just missed for eagle.

A poor choice of club at the ninth, however, cost him a shot and so he turned in level par 36. By then, though, the wind was becoming increasingly more demanding. He took 37 to come home with three bogeys, including one at the 18th, and a lone birdie at the short 17th where he knocked a beautiful soft four iron to three feet.

“I was disappointed to hack my way up the last, other than that I was very pleased,” said Murphy, who outscored each of his playing partners, the experienced Dutchman Rolf Muntz and Englishman Simon Wakefield, by nine shots each.

“It was very blowy and some of the greens were tricky but I hit the ball fantastically well and missed only four or five greens which is pretty good out there. Loch Lomond was marvellous for me, a turning point in my career, but you can’t take Loch Lomond out there because you’d get swallowed up. This is a different animal. You have to keep the ball in play because if you don’t it’s still hard to make bogey. My putting was only around par, my ball striking was probably seven or eight under.”

Murphy is first off this morning at the ungodly hour of 6.30 but that could be of considerable benefit to the 30 year-old Kilkennyman. The greens will be absolutely impeccable and there is also the chance the winds, which tend to rise in strength in the afternoon , will be relatively calm.

“Provided I can get the sleep out of my eyes, that should help,” he quipped. “I don’t really think there might be a disaster waiting to happen. It’s one shot at a time. Fourteen is potentially a disaster hole but you have to commit to every shot. There’s no let up at all. There’s no one hole where you think this is a bit of a giveaway and that’s what makes it so tough.”

Very little seems to go right these days for Paul McGinley. He certainly couldn’t be criticised for want of effort in yesterday’s 77 but double bogeys at 14 and 18 left him desolate at the end of a five hour round.

“It was as tough a day as I ever played golf,” he claimed. “You’ve got a really tough golf course and testing conditions. I battled really well and gave it all away at the end. 72, 73 would have been a good score, I played well enough to score that.”