No joy for Irish at Spanish Amateur
Cordoba's Victor Pastor beat Cormac Sharvin and Geoff Lenehan to reach the last eight in the Spanish Amateur Open at La Reserva.
There will be no Irish presence in the quarterfinals of the Spanish International Amateur Open after all five Irish players exited on the first day of matchplay combat at La Reserva in Sotogrande.
Irish Close champion Cormac Sharvin lost to leading qualifier Victor Pastor by 3 and 2 in the first round and the Spaniard then accounted for Geoff Lenehan by the same margin in the afternoon after the Portmarnock man had beaten Stackstown left-hander Richard Bridges 2 and 1.
Headfort's Rory McNamara beat Carlos Leandro 3 and 1 in the opening round but fell by 4 and 3 to Daniel Berna in the last 16.
It was also a disappointing day for Ballymena's Dermot McElroy as Spain's Sigot López beat him one up in their first round encounter.
Pastor will face Berna in the first quarter-final with the winner taking on Slovenia's Tim Gornik or Spain's Iván Cantero.
In the bottom half of the draw, Robbie Van West of the Netherlands will face Austria's Robin Goger with the winner meeting Spain's Toni Ferrer or Italy's Enrico Di Nitto, who was joint second in the strokeplay qualifying behind Pastor.
