Amateur Championships: Dublin schoolboy Gary McGrane produced a solid round to sweep into the second round of the Boys' Amateur Championship at cold and windy Royal Aberdeen yesterday with a 2 and 1 success against Enmore Park's Alex Kippen. He next meets Belgian Hugues Joannes.
McGrane, who plays out of Royal Dublin, seemed to be coasting when three up after 12 but then lost three on the trot.
The Irish junior cap then moved up a gear to regain the advantage with a birdie at the 411-yard 16th, and a winning par at the 17th saw him home.
Moyola Park's Paul O'Kane eased his way through with a 4 and 2 defeat of Dane Lucas Bjerregaard and now faces Sunningdale's Stiggy Hodgson. The 18-year-old, who plays off scratch, was never behind after winning the first.
The Irish junior international Andrew Hogan must have thought he was safely into round two when he was one up playing the last and his opponent, Suffolk schoolboy Dickon Housman, overhit the 18th green with his second shot.
In fact Housman was a foot away from being out of bounds by the clubhouse but then played an immaculate approach to within six feet of the pin and tapped in for a winning par three.
And at the 19th Housman got down in a chip and a putt to win the tie.
James Patterson from Royal Portrush found Wentworth's Daniel Torrance too hot to handle and went down by 4 and 3 while Malone's Simon Malone also lost by 3 and 2 to Matthew Nixon.
Niall Kearney from Royal Dublin and Paul Cutler from Portstewart, the most successful Irish players at last week's Home Internationals last week, go into action today.
Sarah Faller led the Irish charge in the first qualifying round of the Girls' British Open Amateur Championship at Portstewart yesterday. The Galway teenager produced an inspirational 76 - three over par - and put herself in a strong position to reach the matchplay phase.
Lucy Simpson from Massereene also gave herself a great chance of qualifying when posting 78, one stroke better than Irish girls' champion Stephanie Meadow.
Leading the way after round one was Spanish teenager Belen Mozo, who was flawless in returning a 68 to lead by four.After today's round the top 64 go through to the knockout phase.
