Amateurs ‘unlikely’ to emulate Lowry

FOUR amateurs, Alan Dunbar, Luke Lennox, Paul Cutler and Pat Murray will be teeing it up tomorrow in the 3 Irish Open, each with his sights set on emulating Shane Lowry’s magnificent achievement at Baltray last year.

While Murray has been chasing the South of Ireland Championship at Lahinch, the other three have been getting to know the Killeen layout at Killarney and in the process picking the brains of some of the game’s finest professionals.

Dunbar, the 20-year-old winner of this year’s AIB Irish Amateur Open, played yesterday with Darren Clarke and Rory McIlroy. While it would be ridiculous to suggest that he could become another amateur winner of the Irish Open, Graeme McDowell’s Rathmore clubmate has the ability to string four good rounds together. But win the title? Not likely, says Clarke.