Sugrue brings number of Irish Troon troops to six

KILLARNEY’S Danny Sugrue brought Ireland’s representation in this week’s British Open Championship to six when he came through the qualifying process at Western Gailes over the weekend.

He joins Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley, Graeme McDowell and European amateur champion Brian McElhinney at Royal Troon on Thursday.

A Munster Interprovincial and junior international golfer in his amateur days, Sugrue shot 67 over the par 71 course on Saturday and added a 72 yesterday to lead the four players who came through over the 6,911 yards links. Born on St Patrick’s Day in 1978, Sugrue turned professional in 2002 when he got to the final European Tour School and played all six rounds, but failed to win a card. That performance, however, gained him a place on the Challenge Tour on which he played nine events, made two cuts and earned 812.

More recently, he has contested the Golden Bear Tour in Florida along with fellow Kerrymen Sean Quinlivan and Mark Murphy. This was his fourth time to get into the Open but he missed each time by a narrow margin.

“It’s everyone’s dream to play in the Open but it’s now a question of going out and playing well,” he said. “Once you get in, you want to do well, there’s no point in going out and shooting two 90s. I’m already assured of £2, 000 for qualifying but, obviously, I want to do more than that. I have had no financial support of any kind and am doing it all myself. Hopefully, though, a lot of hard work is now paying off.”

Sugrue made his move with an impressive 67 on Saturday and yesterday it was a case of consolidation.

He overshot the first and third greens and failed to get up and down in each case. However, he regained the initiative with birdies on the 8th, where he sank a 25-footer; at the 10th where he punched a lob wedge to just over a yard and at the 12th with a three foot putt. The 16th and 17th were playing into an ever-freshening wind and, though he dropped shots at both, he had done more than enough.

Sugrue was the only one of 13 Irish players in action over four links on the Ayrshire coast to qualify. Walker Cup amateur Noel Fox shot rounds of 69 and 71 at Irvine, but missed by a stroke to get into a play-off and intends to turn professional at the end of the season. Ronan Rafferty, the former European number one and making a rare competitive appearance these days, totalled 142 at the same venue.

“I’m not disappointed, it was my first tournament in nine months as I’m busy with corporate and television work,” said Rafferty. “I played only 12 events last year and it will be another 12 months before I compete again. My scores are what I might have expected. I hit the ball okay and kept myself out of trouble, but the short game is not what it used to be. It was nice to get out and play some golf in a bit of a breeze.”