Gavin Moynihan inches away from hole-in-one but makes his first Irish Open cut

Gavin Moynihan was inches away from leaving the K Club in a €145,000 BMW but while he narrowly missed out on the required ace, the Irish rookie was happy just to have made his first Irish Open cut.

The Walker Cup-winning hero, who turned professional following last September’s defeat of the USA at Royal Lytham and has been cutting his teeth on the Challenge Tour, fired a second-round 71 yesterday to get to one-under par at the halfway stage in Kildare, comfortably inside the cutline and looking forward to a first weekend’s play on the European Tour.

That will more than compensate for the disappointment of missing out on winning the BMW i8 electric sports car for a hole in one at the par-three 12th, although he did go awfully close. Moynihan watched his seven-iron tee shot travel the 182 yards and just miss right of the hole.