Gales ruin Amateur opener

LIMERICK’S Pat Murray slammed conditions as unplayable with high winds sending scores soaring in the opening round of the Irish Amateur Open at Royal Dublin.

Gale force winds gusting over 40 mph forced officials to suspend play for 80 minutes at 8.40am, just over an hour after the start of play, as they feared that balls would soon start moving on the more exposed greens. Yet flags were still being blown out of holes as the morning wore on.

Needing a par at the last for an 80 that would have left him just six shots adrift of England international Farren Keenan, Murray lost a ball off the tee at the 18th and hit another out of bounds to finish with a quadruple bogey eight for an 84.

He had no problem with that but still felt that play should never have gone ahead on a day when the 14 Walker Cup squad members in action averaged 79.2.

“Flags were being blown out of the holes on the 13th, 16th and 18th,” the 37-year-old former international said. “If you had a three foot putt that was right half, you are coaxing it left side. The 10th, 12th and 13th and 17th should have been 50 yards forward of where they were.

“I am a long time playing in these championships and it is the first time I could honestly put my hand on my heart and say that was not playable and I have played Rosses Point in some horrendous conditions.”

While the tee at the 214-yard par-three seventh was pushed forward by 35 yards and the fourth, 10th, 12th and 13th were also reduced slightly, many players felt that it was just too tough a test.

“It’s a bit of a joke out there,” said Walker Cup hopeful Shane Lowry after a 79.

“It is not really golf. You can’t hole putts and you are just happy to two putt from 10 feet and happy to just hole a two footer. They could have moved a few tees up.”

Seamus Smith, General Secretary of the GUI and a member of the championship committee, defended the decisions taken, explaining: “This is the Irish Amateur Open Championship and we play off the Championship tees. If conditions make it impossible, we will certainly move tees forward but it is already a non-qualifying event from the point of view of CSS.

“There will be no CSS today because we moved more than the required number of yards to allow that to happen, specifically at one hole.”

Keenan, who had two birdies and four bogeys in a 74 that put him a stroke clear of Portmarnock’s James Fox, Royal Dublin’s Niall Kearney and Finland’s Miro Veijalainen.

Bidding to become the first Irish winner of the title since his brother Noel won here in 2003, Fox had five birdies, five bogeys and a triple bogey seven at the 10th as he carded his 75 in the first match of the day while South of Ireland champion Kearney was two over after five but played the remaining holes in just one over.

“I’m very satisfied,” Kearney said. “I was two over after five and finished three over. It was seriously wild but it was playable, even though there were a lot of drivers off the deck on the back nine into some of the par fours.”