Mooney makes bright start at Tour School
The burly, 42-year-old Belfast man flew home on Tuesday to recharge his batteries after coming third in his second-stage qualifier in Jerez. But the weather chaos in Ireland forced him to jet to Alicante instead of Girona last Thursday and drive nearly 400 miles up the east coast to the venue where he is bidding to earn his tour card for the first time by finishing inside the top 30 and ties after six rounds.
Despite his six-hour journey, he had an extra 24 hours to recover following the suspension of play due to heavy frost on Saturday and took advantage by firing a two-under-par 68 on the 6,660-yard Tour Course to share 20th place and lead the Irish quartet.
“I played scrappily enough and didn’t feel that great but it’s behind me now,” Mooney said after a round that featured four birdies and two bogeys. “But it is a good start and I’m playing well and that’s all thanks to the work I’ve done with Johnny Foster at the Greenacres Golf Centre in Ballyclare.”
While Mooney never got to start on Saturday, the other three Irish hopefuls could not finish their opening rounds on the tougher Stadium Course because of frost delays. None managed to beat par as south-west winds gusting up to 35mph sent scores soaring.
Former Royal County Down assistant Simon Thornton was tied for the overnight lead on three under par with six to play. But he bogeyed his last three holes on the front nine for a level par 72 to share 62nd place.
Having broken his driver minutes before his tee time on Saturday, Glasson’s Colm Moriarty was two over with nine to play when he resumed and did well to card a two-over 74, getting up and down from 100 yards to save par at his final hole having just taken a double bogey five following a poor tee shot at the 185-yard eighth.
“It played a lot tougher than Saturday and I was thrown off a little bit with my driver breaking because that has never happened to me before,” said Moriarty, who had four birdies, four bogeys and that double on his card. “Luckily they had one in the tour van with a similar shaft and I hit it okay.”
Royal Dublin’s Niall Kearney resumed on one over with six to play but struggled with his swing and bogeyed the fifth, sixth and eighth coming home to open with a disappointing, four-over-par 76 that left him near the back of the field sharing 136th place.
“There are a few good swings in there but just one out of every five so I need a few hours on the range to sort it out,” the 22-year old said. “I was getting stuck on the downswing and losing a lot of shots to the right.”
Most of the low scoring was done on the shorter Tour Course where England’s Steve Lewton fired a faultless, seven-under par 63 to lead by a shot from former Challenge of Ireland winner Andrew Tampion and Frenchman Jean-Francois Lucquin. Three under 69s by Australia’s Rick Kulacz and Denmark’s Thomas Norret were the lowest scores posted on the 7,172-yard Stadium Course, where the top 70 and ties after 72 holes will play the last two rounds.
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