James Sugrue and Ronan Mullarney push on at Portmarnock

Wondrous dreams aren’t always realised and Mallow’s James Sugrue and Ronan Mullarney from Galway scarcely harboured thoughts of playing in the British and US Opens and the US Masters when they entered this week’s British Amateur Championship at Portmarnock.

However, the talented duo have now reached the quarter-finals of the most important amateur golf event on this side of the world, and so are just three matches away from a massive achievement and a place in all three tournaments.

Last night, Sugrue and Mullarney were trying to put such thoughts firmly from their minds and concentrating as well as they could on maintaining the kind of form that has brought them so far on a showery week at Portmarnock.

Sugrue, winner of the South of Ireland as a 20-year old in 2017, could hardly have been seeing much beyond a speedy return home to Mallow around midday yesterday when he stood three down in his third round encounter with Sweden’s Christoffer Palsson, the man who had eliminated him at the same stage at Royal Aberdeen last year, with four to play. However, he kept his nerve and exerted the necessary pressure on the Swede to such effect that he won the remaining four holes for a most unlikely one-hole success.

“You have 18 holes so you might as well use them,” smiled Sugrue.

“It wasn’t looking good when I missed the green at the short 15th but from there I played probably my shot of the week so far, a bump and run chip to four feet and I sank the putt for a win. It was back to one down when I got down from short right of the green for a birdie 4 and my opponent got into all kinds of trouble at the 17th and 18th to see me through by one hole.”

Having survived such a narrow squeak in the morning, Sugrue was determined to leave nothing to chance in the afternoon against Spain’s Sergio Parrigo Cornejo.

He got off to a dream start with a winning birdie at the 1st where his approach shot lipped out for an eagle two and he was in total command thereafter.

Wins in par followed at the 5th and 7th and the trend continued on the way home, Sugrue stretching his advantage to four at the 13th, a hole contested in lashing rain, and he finished it off at the 15th without having lost a single hole.

Sugrue then joined the gallery watching his Ireland team-mate and good friend Ronan Mullarney in his match against Englishman Matty Lamb.

The Galwegian had played admirably consistent golf in winning his 3rd round match against another Swede Ludvig Aberg at the 15th and it looked much of the same was on the cards in the afternoon when he won the first two holes against Lamb.

The 23-year old Mullarney, who recently completed his Masters in Strategy and Innovation at NUI Maynooth, went three ahead at the 9th with a conceded birdie three and he also birdied the 10th and 11th to cruise five in front with seven to play.

However, a two at the 12th revived the Englishman and he picked up three more holes to bring the match down the 18th where Mullarney duly got the par four he needed for a great victory.

“Ronan played the last very well to finally win it and hopefully the two of us can now go on to meet in Saturday’s 36 hole final,” said Sugrue.

“We are good friends and often travel to tournaments together.”

Sugrue’s quarter-final opposition this morning comes from Dutchman Koen Kouwenaar while Mullarney meets Benjamin Jones (Northampton County).

Fifth place in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR) makes 22-year old Australian David Metheluzzi the lowest ranked player in the field and two solid wins yesterday have seen him safely into the last eight and still justifying favouritism.

Quarter-final pairings: AG Frances (Denmark) v D Micheluzzi (Australia); K Kouwenaar (Netherlands) v J Sugrue (Mallow); E Walker (Kilmarnock Barassie) v E Lopez-Chacanna (Spain); R Mullarney (Galway) v B Jones (Northumberland County).