A disappointing round of 78 sees Padraig miss the cut at the Open Championship. He got off to a wonderful start with two opening birdies but that was as good as it got for the rest of the day. A combination of finding rough off the tee, a visit to a number of bunkers and poor putting, which included five 3 putts and one 4 putt, made it a day to forget as he racked up seven bogies. St Andrews is that type of course that if you get out of position it can be difficult to score anyway decent, and so it proved. Padraig is in a rich vein of form and will no doubt return stronger than ever!
Padraig opens his attempt to win three Claret Jugs with an impressive round of three under par 69. He got off to a steady start with a birdie on the second hole to calm the nerves but dropped a shot at the short par three 8th hole which was playing tough due to a tight pin position. He prompty birdied the reachable par four 9th hole to be out in 35 shots. Two more birdies followed on the 12th and 14th holes before his only dropped shot on the back nine at the par four 15th hole where he found rough off the tee on the left hand side. But he finished with a flourish with a great pitch on the brutal 17th hole to three feet to save par and drove it up beside the 18th green to secure his birdie. He tees off early Friday at 9.47am and will be hoping for a hot start to catch the leader who is on eight under par after the opening round.
Padraig plays this week at the historic 150th Open Championship being held at the home of golf, St.Andrews! Pictured above is the Champions gathering to celebrate the 150 years of the Open, four holes of golf were played by different teams before a dinner to mark the historic occasion. It promises to be a stunning tournament with one of the strongest fields assembled to take on the Old Lady. Weather conditions will predictibly determine the score but it seems set fair to be epic!
Tee Times – Padraig plays with Thomas Pieters and Keith Mitchell at 2.48pm Thursday and 9.47am Friday!