THE LUCK of the draw can be critical, especially on the Jekyll and Hyde sort of day which hit the links here at Baltray yesterday. Those saddled with morning starts in the second round of the East of Ireland amateur championship were forced to battle through torrential rain, and not even wet gear saved them from being soaked to the skin. It was a tough old time at the office, what with the constant need to keep clubs dry and clinging rough gathering errant shots.
By the time Cian Curley teed-off in the early afternoon, conditions had improved enormously – and, as anyone with serious aspirations to claiming a title must do, the 24-year-old Dubliner made the most of his favourable draw by posting a second successive 68 for 136, eight under, which left him four strokes clear of Dessie Morgan and Eddie McCormack at the midway stage.
Curley, a member of Newlands, has been one of the country’s leading amateurs in recent seasons but has found claiming a title an elusive project. A couple of weeks ago, disillusioned after missing the cut at both the Irish Amateur Open and the Welsh Amateur Open, he sat down with the GUI national coach Neil Manchip to clear his head.
“It was a good talk. I was quite down after the Welsh Amateur, I’d been playing well without producing the scores. I had a good chat with Neil, and left realising I had to start enjoying golf again and I got away from thinking about results.”
The upshot has seen Curley, a beaten finalist in last year’s Irish Close, return to the type of form which the Irish selectors – who handed him a call-up last year to the European Team Championships – had previously noted.
Having shot a 68 on Saturday, at which stage he was a shot adrift in a three-way tie for second along with defending champion Paul Cutler and McCormack behind first round leader Morgan, Curley took the initiative in the second round with another 68, which tied for the low round of the day with Enda Maguire.
It was indicative of Curley’s new mindset that, having started his round on the 10th, he wasn’t deflected by running up a double-bogey six on the 14th. in fact, his response was to birdie the 15th and, then, get back to level on his round with another birdie on the 18th. The fireworks came just after the turn, with a run of birdie-eagle-birdie from the second.
The eagle came on the third, where he hit a three-iron approach from 236 yards to three feet; and, after birdie on the fourth, he finished with five successive pars which included a good par save on the last where he got a flyer out of the rough over the back of the green. “I’m not thinking about winning, we’re only halfway through,” remarked Curley, who claimed he would continue with the gameplan which has put him into pole position ahead of today’s concluding 36-holes.
Curley carries a four-shot advantage into the final two rounds, with Morgan and McCormack his closest pursuers. Cutler, the winner of the Lytham Trophy last month, was a shot further back alongside Dara Lernihan and Aaron Kearney.
Morgan, the first round leader, and McCormack were among those who braved the worse of the weather conditions. “I felt like a seagull looking into a bottle,” quipped Morgan, who nevertheless kept himself very much in the thick of things with a 73 to add to his opening 67, while McCormack stuck gamely to his task in battling through the elements for a 72 to join Morgan on the 140 mark.
Cutler, on 142, remained very much in the hunt. The 21-year-old Ulsterman – fully recovered from tendonitis in his elbow which forced him to miss the Irish Amateur Open last month – took a double-bogey five on the par three 17th to spoil what had been a hugely impressive round in the morning weather where he had reeled of 14 successive pars to the 14th before claiming his lone birdie on the 15th, only to slip-up at the penultimate hole.
