First blood for Bernard

Carton House assistant Bernard Quigley teed-off the new pro-am season, at Shannon in the style he hopes to continue.

During the early afternoon, he posted a three-under-par 69 to set a target in the PING-sponsored Dr William Flynn Memorial tournament that nobody else could match.

Back-to-back birdies at the closing two holes were the secret strokes of Quigley but he really laid the foundations of victory over the front nine which he covered in an excellent three-under-par 35.

The winner started quickly by trimming a shot off the long second hole and then pencilled in a three at the par four fifth.

Another birdie at the long eighth, and not a sign of a bogey, left Quigley out in three-under-35 but the charge was halted when he made a four at the short 12th hole and a bogey five at 15.

Then carding a two and a four, at 17 and 18, for closing birdies wiped out the slip-ups on the 12th and 15th holes and gave the winner a comfortable lead of three strokes over joint second David Higgins and Damian Mooney.

Making a welcome return to the Irish Tour were former Irish champions Hugh Jackson (Unattached) and Liam Higgins (Waterville) plus John McHenry (McHenry Golf Ltd), the former European and Canadian Tour player. However, none of the three figured in the final shake-up.

Former Ulster PGA champion James Quinlivan brought in the winning team of local members Colm Reidy (13), Pat Madden (15) and Jim O'Connell (18) on 95 points.