British Amateur - Ballyliffin

big_drive

Major disappointment for the Irish lads involved. Only 2 made it to Matchplay stage which is incredibly low given some of the quality lads playing who would have been eyeing this tournament with a while. Thought Matt McClean would have been really in the running, Hugh Foley too even though his form hasn't been spectacular this season.

And Sean Keeling was beaten in his game. Only Max Kennedy remains now.

4 Estonian players made it to the match play round. Great to see a relatively new country to golf doing so well. I think we can all agree the story of the week has been the performance of Lev Grinberg from Ukraine through to the last 32 of the match play.

I think that the well is drying up on Irish amateur golf. Other than the likes of Matthew McClean and Caolan Rafferty who both won’t turn pro, there is a shortage of amateurs that have pro ambitions bar perhaps Sean Keeling who is going to Texas Tech in the fall.

big_drive

Great story too was the lad from Kenya whose clubs never arrived. He used a rental set for Round 1 and managed to go around in +1 which shows the skill of these lads. He ended up missing cut by a couple shots, I didn't see if he still played Round 2 with the rental set or not.

big_drive

Heard a crazy enough story from Sean Keelings match. On 6th hole he went into rough on left, played his shot onto the green but then realised it was an old ball from the practice round. So he'd to concede the hole. Some odds on finding same ball, same markings etc in same area

Deeper Blue

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122280609#Comment_122280609

How did he know it was the practice round ball I wonder? Someone found the newer ball in the rough maybe?

big_drive

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122280867#Comment_122280867

Not sure but must have been when he marked it on green and saw something that he knew it wasn't correct ball.

Xander10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122280915#Comment_122280915

Should have said nothing 😉

Deeper Blue

I see there was a 19 man playoff for the final 18 spots in the Matchplay portion. A Dutch lad made a triple on the first hole and was the only one to do so, so the other 18 went through. Ouch

moycullen14

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122281142#Comment_122281142

That's an interesting one. How does it work? Do the players that score worst keep on going until there's only one left and they are the loser?

Deeper Blue

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122281665#Comment_122281665

Yup, as far as I know if two of them had made triple then the other 17 would go through and the two triplers would play the next hole etc

AyeGer

what time does it start again tomorrow morning, I might go up to it. How much are they charging for entry does anyone know?

big_drive

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122283874#Comment_122283874

It's free entry, starting tomorrow at 8.15am for quarter finals. Would be well worth a look if you can, you'd get up close to watch some serious golfers

https://www.randa.org/championships/the-amateur-championship-spectator-info

Don’t forget that the Women’s Amateur championship gets underway this Monday in Portmarnock. An incredibly strong field, possibly the best field in the history of this championship set to battle it out on one of Irelands finest golf links. Annabel Wilson will have a great week I think.

charlieIRL

I watched a bit of the amateur yesterday morning, course looked amazing