England’s Harley Smith tied the amateur course record as he raced into the lead on day one of the Flogas Irish Men’s Amateur Open Championship at The Island today.
FORMAT: 72-hole stroke play
It was a stunning round of 67 (-5) from the 18-year-old Essex player, and, even though he played his part in the difficult half of the draw, he still took a one-shot overnight lead ahead of Scotland’s Ross Laird (Glenbervie).
“I come to every event to try and win but I play to try and beat the golf course every time I play,” said Smith, who, two years ago, equalled Justin Rose’s record of winning the England U-18s and U-16s in the same year.
“I don’t really worry about it as there are such good players playing in these events, you don’t know what they are going to shoot. I just play to beat the golf course and see what happens.”
The Rayleigh Club player, who started on the 10th, was outstanding on the front nine – his back nine – and eventually finished the day with six birdies, including the 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 9th.
He added: “I was planning to shoot around par. I played the practice round yesterday and it was very tough. I went out there today and made sure that I stuck to a really good game plan of hitting it to the right side of the flag.
“I nipped a couple of birdies early on the par five and 18th which put me -2 at the turn and I played very solid coming in.
“The back nine is definitely harder than the front nine. Starting on the back nine and getting off to a good start definitely gave me a lot of momentum coming into the front nine and I played really well from there.”
The weather improved dramatically in the afternoon and there were perfect conditions for a star-studded field which included ten of the Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup squad.
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The Irish were well represented on the leaderboard too with Caolan Rafferty carding a 69 to place third in the standings.
Elsewhere, Keith Egan (Carton House) and Paul Coughlan (Castleknock) also finished inside the top four (70).
The event has a cut after three rounds with the top 50 and ties making it into Sunday’s final round.
For all the scores click here