Making the cut McNamara’s mission

A year ago on the eve of his 27th birthday, Cian McNamara gazed at the Irish Open scoreboard during the first round at Carton House with stars in his eyes.

There he was up there, better placed than many of golf’s greatest like fellow Irishmen Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Pádraig Harrington and on level terms with Jose-Maria Olazabal, eventual champion Paul Casey and Thomas Bjorn.

“This is beyond my wildest dreams,” he rejoiced on leaving Carton’s 18th hole with a four-under-par 68 under his belt and with every chance of surviving the halfway cut the following day.