Killymoon pro golfer Michael Gallagher showed he has well and truly thrown off the effects of a bad car crash last summer by leading Ireland's top young players today at Ardee in County Louth.
Playing in the national qualifier for the Powerade PGA Assistants' Championship, in association with FootJoy, the 24-year-old from County Tyrone reduced the Ardee course to a one-under 70, but still insisted his driving - off the road - was awful, and only some brilliant putting was his salvation.
"You could call it a Seve-type round", said Gallagher, who's just completed his PGA training at Killymoon. "I was all over the place, but found the greens more or less in regulation, and boy, did my putter work a treat."
He briefly recalled his accident which happened on the way to a golf event at Narin and Portnoo in Donegal. "All I remember is going over a hedge, wrecking the car, and, I thought, my back. I was out for a couple of months but thankfully everything's more or less back to normal."
Home advantage came to Ryan Donagher's aid over his own course, and he recorded the neatest figures, if not the best, of any of the 50 young pros taking part.
The 24-year-old who hails from Zimbabwe toured the course in 72, one over par, but the unusual aspect of Donagher's card was the figure '4' marked for all 18 holes.
"I've never done that before", said the Ardee trainee, whose best score round the 6,500-yard circuit is a 66. "I birdied both the long holes - and bogeyed the three par-threes...isn't that weird?"
But there was certainly nothing untoward about his play, epitomised by a superb six-iron second shot from the left rough at the 474-yard eighth. That found the green, and two putts provided his opening birdie.
Eleventh two years ago in the Irish Assistants' Championship - his first competition as a PGA trainee - Donagher and his family came to Ireland in 2001 because of Zimbabwe's economic plight.
He now joins the 13 other Irish qualifiers in the 54-hole Powerade final at The London Club in mid-August, where the winner picks up €5,000, and a place in next year's PGA Championship at Wentworth.
26 May, 2009