No home comforts for Irish stars at World Amateur Team Championship

Brian Keogh Ireland’s hopes of winning a medal suffered a devastating blow when they were left spluttering the exhaust fumes of golf’s superpowers on day two of the World Amateur Team Championship for the Espirito Santo Trophy at Carton House.

Ireland’s hopes of winning a medal suffered a devastating blow when they were left spluttering the exhaust fumes of golf’s superpowers on day two of the World Amateur Team Championship for the Espirito Santo Trophy at Carton House.

The girls in green shot a disappointing one-over 147 on the easier O’Meara Course on day two and are now tied for 10th place, 16 strokes behind the United States of America and 13 shots behind third-placed Japan with two days to go.

They return to the tough Montgomerie Course today needing to shoot well under par to get back into the medal race before returning to the O’Meara Course for Saturday’s final round.

And while non-playing captain Danielle McVeigh is not throwing in the towel, pointing out that there are still 36 holes to play, they face a Herculean task after allowing their medal rivals to steal a march on them yesterday.

“We did around about what we did yesterday,” McVeigh said as Ireland followed Wednesday’s three-under 141 with a one-over 147. “Maybe a couple of shots worse. Yesterday it was good, today it wasn’t. You know, the comparison is the thief of joy.

I am proud of the girls the way they hung in there because it is not easy when those you are playing with are making a ton of birdies.

“By the sounds of it, the girls just tried to force it a little bit and got a little bit impatient.”

World No 1 Jennifer Kupcho and No 3 Kristen Gillman shot eight-under 65s on the O’Meara Course to catapult the United States to the top of the leaderboard on 18 under par, one stroke clear of South Korea for whom Ayean Cho outscored Annabel Wilson by ten with a nine-under 64 and Seo Yun Kwon’s four-under 69 was four shots better than Olivia Mehaffey.

Japan are three shots off the pace in third on 15 under par, but after starting so well on Wednesday to get to three under, Ireland went into reverse gear on the easier of the two courses yesterday with Mehaffey carding a level par 73, Wilson a one-over 74 and Paula Grant a discarded 75.

Mehaffey did well to battle back from an early double-bogey seven at the fourth to be two under for her round with just the 18th to play.

But she was forced to take a penalty drop after finishing in the roots of a tree with her drive and ended up bunkering her third shot and closing with a double bogey six for her level par 73.

As things turned out, she was the best of the Irish as Wilson who had battled back from two over after three to level par with four to play, found the River Rye with her second shot to the par-five 15th and dropped a key shot.

It was all the more frustrating for all three to watch their American and Korean playing partners tear up the course as they struggled.

Asked what she could say to her team now, McVeigh said: “I will just give them a hug.

I am not going to tell them some silver lining nonsense. They know themselves.

“There are no big issues. “There are still 280 odd shots that we are going to be hitting so we are only halfway through.”

Mehaffey was bitterly disappointed, admitting her slow start put her under pressure.

“I don’t know how the other girls found it but it was a little frustrating for me,” Mehaffey said. “I had some good chances, tried to force it a little bit and then two doubles, you can’t do that out there.

“You can’t make many mistakes because there are a lot of wedges and a lot of short shots.

“When you are even par through a couple of holes, and you’ve had a lot of opportunities, you feel like you are trying to force it a little bit. We play the Monty (Friday) and we know if we have a decent day we will jump up a load of spots again.”