Purcell leads the Irish in Sweden; rollercoaster debut for Sugrue
Conor Purcell. Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Bryan Keane
Conor Purcell fired a six-under 66 to lie just a shot off the lead in the weather-delayed Range Servant Challenge in Sweden.
The Portmarnock man (23) was on five-under through 15 holes when play was suspended overnight after a heavy thunderstorm delayed proceedings at Hinton Golf Club in Malmö.
But he took up where he left off on Thursday and birdied the 18th to share sixth place behind Spain’s Borja Virto, Norway’s Espen Kofstad, Poland’s Mateusz Gradecki, Scotland’s Craig Howie and Sweden’s Christofer Blomstrand.
Mallow’s James Sugrue birdied his last two holes to open with a frustrating, two-under 70 on his professional debut.
“It was good but I struggled a bit to be quite honest,” said Sugrue, who bogeyed three of four holes straight after a three-hour storm delay before regrouping.
“It was a bit of a battle. When that rain delay came I just completely lost the speed of the greens and I had a couple of three putts. But I finished decently so I’m happy enough.”
Sugrue was tied 58th in Malmo, five shots behind a quintet of leaders with Gavin Moynihan 99th after a 72. Portmarnock’s Conor Purcell was on five-under through 15 holes with Paul McBride one-under after 12 holes and Robin Dawson level with three to go when play was suspended.
James Sugrue. Picture: Getty Images
“A 70 at the end of the day is respectable enough for the way I thought I played. Finishing birdie-birdie obviously helped things but yeah, the storm kind of threw me a little bit.”
Sugrue hit a three wood to 20 feet and two-putted from 20 feet for birdie at the par-five 14th on the resumption of play but completely lost the pace off the greens due to the heavy rain.
“My first bogey on the 15th, I hit it into nine feet at three-putted. Then on the 17th, which was a long par-three, I hit a one-iron into 25 feet, left it six feet short and missed it.”
After missing a good chance at the 16th, he would drop another shot at the 18th to turn in one-over-par but birdied the first and fourth and followed a sloppy bogey at the fifth with closing birdies at the eighth and ninth.
“I finished decently so I’m happy enough,” he said. “I hit a wedge stiff on the eighth and then drove to the edge of the ninth which was driveable and two-putted from the fringe
“Every hole is a birdie hole,” Sugrue said. “I made a couple of silly mistakes. On my sixth hole, I had a wedge in and made a stupid mistake – was getting greedy and just seeing birdie and ended up making bogey. I’m happy enough but it could’ve been a lot better.”
The Island’s Paul McBride was 63rd after making four birdies and two bogeys in a 70 while Gavin Moynihan was 101st as he mixed two birdies with two bogeys in a 72.
Tramore’s Robin Dawson was level par with three holes to go when play was suspended but bogeyed the 16th and 17th to share 129th after a 74.
Virto posted his lowest competitive round in almost three years as he grabbed a share of a five-way tie for the lead.
The Spaniard carded a seven-under par round of 65 to join Sweden’s Christofer Blomstrand, Poland’s Mateusz Gradecki, Scotland’s Craig Howie and Norway’s Espen Kofstad at the top of the leaderboard after bad weather caused a three-hour delay to proceedings on the first day at Hinton Golf Club.
They lead by one from Denmark’s Marcus Helligkilde, Swede Mikael Lindberg and Germany’s Hurly Long, who are all tied sixth on six under par alongside Austria’s Timon Baltl, who will be required to finish his first round on Friday after day one was suspended due to darkness.
Spain’s Virto, a two-time European Challenge Tour winner, holed a lengthy birdie putt on the final hole to move to seven under par and take some positive momentum into the second round.
“I’m really happy with the way I played today,” he said. “It’s really nice to start with seven-under. I haven’t gone that low in a very long time actually, so I was really pleased with today.
“For the first 12 holes, I played really well from tee to green and made nice up and downs for birdie on the par fives. I left myself a lot of birdie chances and made most of them from five or six feet.
“The putt on 18 is a big boost to start the round tomorrow, because I was struggling a bit on the last five holes, just grinding to try and finish the score. It was a nice bonus.”
Norwegian Kofstad did not play a practice round at Hinton Golf Club after a long journey to Malmö from South Africa and he believes his pressure-free approach paid dividends in the opening round.
“It was a very nice round,” he said. “I stayed within myself all day. I didn’t play a practice round yesterday, I just walked the course and decided on the lines I wanted to hit. I’ve never hit a bad golf shot on this golf course before so it was nice to come out just free and I played really nicely.
“We had two cancelled flights on our way here, so we arrived on Tuesday night as we drove all the way from Stockholm and then I was just so tired yesterday.”
