TEENAGER JACK Hume from Rathsallagh upstaged the fancied candidates in yesterday’s first qualifying round for the North of Ireland Amateur Open Championship as he finished the day on five-under 65 on the Valley course, Royal Portrush.

South of Ireland titleholder Stephen Walsh and Daniel Vaughan from Ardglass looked certain to hold the overnight lead from the Valley as they shared top of the leaderboard from lunchtime but the Wicklow lad pushed the pair into joint-second place.

Dubliner Walsh, a scratch handicapper out of Portmarnock and a UCD graduate, was first to set the target at rainy Royal Portrush at four-under-par 66 but minutes later was joined by civil servant Vaughan before Hume upset the calculations.

The former boy wonder, who wrapped up the four provincial boys’ championship titles in 2010, spread six birdies over his card with just one blot, a bogey four at the sixth. He birdied the first, fourth, fifth and seventh plus the 15th and 16th coming home.

Today, along with all the others who trod the Valley yesterday, he will tackle the jumbo Dunluce links, after which 64 players will got through to the matchplay first-round tomorrow morning.

Walsh, first to set the target at 66, was pleased with his opening performance, after he missed the cut last year when making bogey at the final hole, and revealed: “Putting was the key to my score. I holed some good ones.”

That was an understatement as he rolled home a 60-footer on the sixth for a two after making birdie from 10 feet at the previous hole. A bogey followed at the eighth but he highlighted his card with an eagle at 10 after hitting the hole with a five-iron albatross attempt from 210 yards. Walsh lost a shot at 12 but finished strongly with birdies at 13 and 17.

Vaughan’s putter was also pretty hot with a 20-foot birdie two at the third, a six-footer at the fifth and a five-footer at eight. He dropped shots, however, at two and six. On the back nine, the scratch player birdied the long 10th, the short 12th and the long 13th.

Leading the way from Dunluce, yesterday was Chris Carroll (Shandon Park) who posted one-under-par 71 and should be among the 64 players who will go through to the matchplay stages.