The 31-year-old has battled struggles with the putter all season on the Challenge Tour and has failed to record a finish better than 25th, but being back on home soil has him confident that he can still turn the 2024 season into a positive one.
That said, there have been some tough moments which saw McElroy miss six cuts in his 12 starts, and he acknowledges there has been a lot of character-building in 2024.
“It does get to me, yeah. If I have a run of tournaments where I’ve played well and the results haven’t been good, it’s tough,” says McElroy.
“I know I should be finishing much higher than I am. But I know I have to stay positive about my game and in myself. When I play good golf, I know I’ll be near the top of the leaderboard no matter where I am, so that’s the confidence thing.
“I’m just going to keep working and trying. No excuses, just go out and play good golf, shoot good scores.”
He has made some changes to try and fix the putting woes, swapping his grip from left-hand low to right-hand low and using a blade putter instead of a mallet in a bid to turn around the source of his frustration.
“It hasn’t been bad, it’s been awful, and it’s been frustrating because it feels like I’ve been playing well but I’ll still shoot one or two-over and it feels like I should have shot four or five-under,” he admits.
“But I’ve changed my whole putting style, and it half-worked last week and I holed some more putts. I’m quietly confident that’s turning around now.”
That, he hopes, will lead to an upturn in results and a potential second-half-of-the-season surge up the Road to Mallorca rankings, and where better to do it than in his home country?
While most eyes will be on Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Joel Moscatel and John Parry, who are all chasing a third win of 2024 that would earn them immediate promotion to the DP World Tour, McElroy is hoping he can put himself back into the mix for a top-20 spot in the order of merit that would get him a promotion as well.
“My confidence is building. This week, next week or the week after, I’m going to hit good form. It’s all coming together nicely,” adds McElroy, who tees off his first round alongside Sam Hutsby and Frank Kennedy at 1.10pm.
“Hopefully, this could spark something for the rest of the season. It’s so top-heavy on the Challenge Tour, so if I have a couple of top-fives, I’ll move up near the top-40, and that’s not even factoring in the potential of a win. Then, you could be challenging for the top-20.
“I’m a couple of good results away from being where I need to be at the end of the season.”
Clandeboye’s Jonathan Caldwell begins his tournament at 8am with Hamish Brown and JJ Senekal, while Spa professional Simon Thornton is off in the first group of the day from the 10th tee at 7.30am alongside Oliver Fisher and Curtis Knipes.
Meanwhile, defending champion Colm Campbell (Warrenpoint) and Joshua Hill (Galgorm) are the best Northern Irish players after the first round of stroke play qualifying at the South of Ireland after a pair of two-under 70s at Lahinch.
At the European Ladies’ Amateur in Finland, both Beth Coulter (Kirkistown Castle) and Annabel Wilson (Castlerock) opened with two-over 74s at Messilä Golf, where Spain’s Andrea Revuelta leads by two after a six-under 66.
Malone’s Fionn Dobbin is seven shots off the lead at the halfway stage of the Carris Trophy at Ormskirk, his second-round 72 dropping him back to one-under-par, with Italy’s Lapo Francesco Bisazza one clear at eight-under. Royal Portrush’s Luka Rodgers is six-over.