Moran one clear as Campbell moves through the gears at The Island
Robert Moran (Castle) on the fifth tee during Round 3 of the Flogas Irish Men's Amateur Open Championship, The Island Golf Club, Donabate, Co. Dublin, Ireland. 14/05/2022 Picture: Golffile | Thos Caffrey
Castle’s Robert Moran emerged from a 105-minute fog delay to lead the Flogas Irish Men’s Amateur Open into the final day but a host of potential champions also showed their faces on moving day at The Island.
As Moran chiselled out a level par 72 to lead by a shot on level par 216 from joint overnight leaders Marc Boucher from Carton House and Ballybofey & Stranorlar’s Ryan Griffin, who both shot 73s, Warrenpoint’s Colm Campbell carded a three-under 69 to join them in second place on one-over
Winner of this title at Royal Dublin in 2016, Campbell mixed bogeys at the first and eighth with birdies at the third, fourth, 10th, 15th and 16th to card a score that was only bettered yesterday by Dundalk’s Caolan Rafferty, whose 68 was a 12-shot improvement on his second round, catapulting him to 11th place, six shots off the lead.
Campbell, who had his uncle Paddy Gribben on the bag, is slowly returning to competitive form after suffering a hand injury, getting married, welcoming a daughter to the world and changing career.
“Things have slightly changed since then obviously!” he laughed. “But I’m still ambitious and still want to try and compete. I wasn’t here to make up the numbers, obviously, the goal is to come here and give myself a chance of winning on the last day. So, I’ve put myself into a nice position going into tomorrow which is what we want to do.”
The overnight leaders had reached just the fifth fairway when a mist rolled in from the Irish Sea ad play was suspended for an hour and 45 minutes.
Rafferty managed to sneak in with a 68 before the delay, jumping 43 spots up the leaderboard.
“I went out with a carefree attitude because I was either going to make the cut or miss it,” explained the 2019 Walker Cup player. “I wasn’t playing great the last few days, but I changed the putter this morning and held a few nice putts today and that was the difference.”
Boucher and Moran were nip and tuck throughout the first 9 holes, but it was Moran who took the advantage into the final 9 holes as Boucher stumbled through the middle of his round. The pair are friendly off the course, and know each other’s games well, but going toe-to-toe at this level is a new experience.
“It’s weird, I would be really good mates with Marc, but I’ve never played with him in competition, so it was enjoyable enough anyway,” said Moran after signing for a 72.
“I’m tired now, it was a long day, and the false start didn’t help obviously,” he continued. “It was a long wait even for the afternoon tee-time. I played my PlayStation this morning and took a bit longer the usual making my breakfast and lunch, then we were good to go!”
“I’m excited for tomorrow, I don’t really know I don’t overthink it. Whatever shot is in front of you try and hit the right one. A one-shot lead is nothing so just take each shot as it comes and hopefully I hit the right one.”
The 54 hole cut fell at 16-over with 59 players progressing to the final round.
One of the performances of the day came from Keith Egan, who carded a bogey-free 69 to make the cut on the limit.
Andrew Benson shot 70 to make it on the mark as local man Kevin LeBlanc had two eagle threes in a 70 to share 30th on 12-over
With just six strokes covering the top 10 on the leaderboard, the championship is wide open with all the Irish squad through to the last day - six of them inside the top 12.
Flogas Irish Amateur Open, The Island (Par 72)
After 54 holes
216 R Moran (Castle) 70 74 72;
217 C Campbell (Warrenpoint) 73 75 69, M Boucher (Carton House) 71 73 73, R Griffin (Ballybofey & Stranorlar) 70 74 73;
219 M McClean (Malone) 73 75 71, J Hanney (The Island) 71 74 74, A Fahy (Bray) 70 75 74;
220 J Hill (Galgorm Castle) 72 75 73;
221 H Foley (Royal Dublin) 72 75 74;
222 L Irvine (SCO ) 75 77 70;
223 C Rafferty (Dundalk) 75 80 68;
224 T Ford (Co. Sligo) 75 74 75, S Keeling (Roganstown) 75 74 75, A Brady (Co. Sligo) 74 74 76, W Ahlgren (SWE) 72 78 74, J Madden (Royal Portrush) 70 80 74;
225 M Roberts (WAL) 77 74 74, E McCormack (Galway Bay) 73 77 75, J Murphy (Douglas) 73 75 77, G Dunne (Co. Louth) 70 77 78, M Wilson (SCO) 69 76 80;
226 P Coughlan (Castleknock) 78 79 69, H Byers (ENG) 77 75 74, A Brady (AUS) 76 75 75, J Whelan (Grange) 74 78 74, K Popert (ENG) 74 77 75;
227 A Maguire (Laytown & Bettystown) 76 77 74, T Lecomte (SUI) 75 75 77, D Flynn (Carton House) 73 81 73;
228 K LeBlanc (The Island) 81 77 70, C Wilson (SCO) 77 77 74, J McDonnell (Forrest Little) 75 77 76, C Murtagh (The Island) 75 76 77, S Mc Dermott (Slieve Russell) 74 77 77, E Murphy (Dundalk) 73 78 77, S McLoughlin (Co. Sligo) 70 76 82;
229 A Mulholland (Castlerock) 77 82 70, C Harkin (Letterkenny) 76 75 78, J Stewart (SCO) 75 80 74, S Flanagan (Portmarnock) 73 79 77, D Kitt (Athenry) 72 80 77;
230 C Denvir (Elm Park) 76 77 77, L Nolan (Galway) 70 82 78;
231 S Carroll (Ballybunion) 77 78 76, P O'Hanlon (Carton House) 76 83 72, E Sullivan (Carton House) 76 80 75, P O'Keeffe (Douglas) 74 78 79;
232 K Egan (Carton House) 84 79 69, A Benson (SCO) 81 81 70, P O Dochartaigh (Gweedore) 78 79 75, A King (Faithlegg) 77 80 75, J Cleary (Elm Park) 77 76 79, R Knightly (Royal Dublin) 76 81 75, C Hickey (Dooks) 76 77 79, F Macarthur (ENG) 75 83 74, I Lynch (Rosslare) 74 80 78, R Cannon (Balbriggan) 73 84 75, P Keeling (Roganstown) 72 79 81, D Marshall (Naas) 72 78 82.
Missed the cut
233 L Abom (Edmondstown) 76 78 79, J Fox (Portmarnock) 75 79 79;
234 C O'Connor (Roscommon) 80 78 76, D O'Sullivan (Tralee) 80 75 79, G Lenehan (Portmarnock) 78 80 76, C O'Connor (Corrstown) 76 78 80, A McCabe (The Links Portmarnock) 75 76 83, H Gillivan (Westport) 74 79 81, S O'Connell (Athenry) 71 85 78
235 M Scowsill (ENG) 81 76 78, T Heaton (AUS) 77 79 79, L O'Connor (Edmondstown) 75 81 79;
236 G O'Neill (Malahide) 85 77 74, P Buckley (Cork) 82 80 74, C Steel (ENG) 79 78 79, D O'Riordan (Fermoy) 78 86 72, J Foley (Elm Park) 77 79 80, D Connellan (St. Anne's) 76 77 83, A Dooley (Carton House) 75 81 80 ; 237 J Lyons (Galway) 82 74 81, D Shiel (Powerscourt) 78 78 81, G Collins (Rosslare) 76 79 82, L Talarczyk (ENG) 75 84 78, G Cullen (The Links Portmarnock ) 75 78 84;
238 R Brazill (Naas) 84 81 73, C Ryan (Bray) 83 81 74, L Kelly (Belvoir Park) 80 82 76, C Gugler (SUI) 80 76 82, R Kennelly (Castleknock) 79 84 75, A Saleem (SCO ) 78 83 77, L Cunningham (Galway Bay) 78 82 78, M Ford (AUS) 77 77 84;
239 A Challoner (Galway Bay) 80 81 78, R Muir (SCO) 77 87 75, S Hedger (SCO) 77 82 80, J Blake (The Island) 76 84 79;
240 S O'Connor (Castlebar) 81 85 74, Q Carew (Castleknock) 81 82 77, R Laird (SCO) 79 78 83, M Deasy (Douglas) 76 82 82, A Kiernan (Forrest Little) 76 82 82;
241 J Hewitt (Tandragee) 84 83 74, O Brown (WAL) 82 79 80, R McNelis (Fintona) 80 82 79, R Milne (Faithlegg) 77 77 87;
242 T Higgins (Roscommon) 84 82 76;
243 S Desmond (Monkstown) 80 83 80;
244 J Walsh (Douglas) 83 83 78;
245 R Walsh Jr (Douglas) 86 81 78, S Cooper (Enniscorthy) 79 80 86, T Dowdall (Woodbrook) 78 92 75;
250 E Lisibach (Glasgow) 82 86 82;
251 T Plunkett (Crover House) 83 81 87;
252 R O'Connor (Co. Sligo) 87 84 81;
254 C Butler (Kinsale) 81 89 84, S Lillis (Kilrush) 81 84 89;
RTD 157 S Kenneally (Kinsale) 79 78;
NR 156 J Hood (Galgorm Castle) 81 75;
DQ 157 S Carter (Royal Dublin) 80 77;
RTD 158 M Shiel (Galway Bay) 78 80, R McKeever (Castle) 74 84;
WD 159 B Ronan (Co. Louth) 80 79;
RTD 161 R Abernethy (Dun Laoghaire) 78 83;
RTD 165 N Hearns (Mountrath) 82 83
WD 165 D Keating (Seapoint) 79 86;
WD 167 M Giles (Greenore) 83 84;
RTD 168 A Hiney (Moate) 80 88;
WD 175 J Rowe (Belvoir Park) 79 96;
WD 90 R Lindsay (SCO);
RTD 80 S O Neill (Slieve Russell);
WD 77 K Murphy (Arklow);
WD 80 S Dowling (The Island);
RTD 83 S Irwin (Castleknock).