O'Keeffe and Maguire make Amateur quarters; Dunne heads Irish in Czech Republic
Peter O'Keeffe pictured with his wife Mary-Claire and kids Alice and Billy after his win in Munster Stroke Play at Cork Golf Club last year. Picture: Niall O'Shea
Douglas’s Peter O’Keeffe and Laytown and Bettystown’s Alex Maguire kept their feet on the ground after battling their way into the quarter-finals of the Amateur Championship at Royal Lytham and St Annes.
AIG Irish Close champion O’Keeffe (40) has been having a poor season but after treating the trip as a family holiday, he takes on title favourite John Gough today.
“I wasn't even going to come because I played brutal in [the East of Ireland] back home last week, so we said we would make a family holiday out of it,” the big Cork man said after following a two-hole win over New Zealand’s James Hydes by coming back from two down after nine to beat France’s Nathan Legendre 1-up.
"This is the dream, you know, so it's worth showing up at least, and I played okay in qualifying. I got it going in places and just kind of played smart golf here the first few days and then played lovely today.”
Maguire won the East but he’s not getting ahead of himself despite following a 2&1 win over Kilkenny’s Mark Power with a 1-up win over Scotland’s Jamie Roberts to set up a quarter-final with Max Charles.
"It's probably the biggest week of anyone's life if you win this,” Maguire (21) said of the chance to win starts in The 150th Open and next year’s Masters and US Open.
“It started creeping in last week when I was coming to play. A lot of my friends and my parents’ friends were texting me saying, ‘It's only like six rounds to The Open'. I know I've done half of those. Look, you never know what can happen over the next couple days. I'm not going to get too far ahead of myself.”
In the third round, Jack Hearn saw off Italy’s Lucas Nicolas Fallotico 4&3, Matthew McClean beat American Christian Banke at the 19th, Caolan Rafferty beat Welshman Archie Davies 3&2 and Maguire defeated Mark Power 2&1.
But Hearn fell 4&3 to England’s Sam Bairstow, Rafferty fell 4&3 to Australia’s Max Charles and McClean lost 4&3 to Sweden’s Ludvig Åberg.
At the weather-delayed Kaskáda Golf Challenge in the Czech Republic, Paul Dunne shot a five-under 66 to share sixth, two shots behind Denmark's Simonsen and Switzerland's Freiburghaus with Conor Purcell joint 22nd and James Sugrue, Tom McKibbin and Robin Dawson 37th.
Niall Kearney was 74th after a 71, Gavin Moynihan 119th after a 74 and Charlie Williams 12-over after an 83.
On the LPGA Tour, Leona Maguire birdied three of her last seven holes to share 30th after the opening round of the Meijer LPGA Classic at Blythefield Country Club in Michigan.
She’s six shots behind Jennifer Kupcho, whose nine-under 63 gave her a one-shot lead of Gerina Mendoza and Stephanie Meadow’s 70 left her tied 45th.
