Kearney and Brady lead Irish PGA at Dundalk

Defending champion Niall Kearney (Royal Dublin) and Eamonn Brady (Clontarf GC) are locked together at the top of leaderboard after the opening day of the LowFuelCard.ie Irish PGA Championship at Dundalk GC.

In perfect scoring conditions, Kearney and Brady carded rounds of seven under par 65 to lead James Quinlivan (Mullingar GC) by one and Colm Moriarty (Drive Golf Performance) by two.

Brady won the pro-am on Wednesday with a bogey free round of 67 and he continued in that vein on Thursday, collecting seven birdies and finishing the day without a dropped shot.

“I have played well this year but have struggled a bit with my confidence recently,” said the 41-year-old who failed to get through the first round of the European Tour qualifying school last week.

“I feel like I have found it again lately, so hopefully I’ll keep it going.”

Meanwhile a second successive four under par 68 over the Ribagolfe course in Lisbon yesterday took Dubliner Gavin Moynihan to the verge of going through to the second stage of European Tour qualifying school.