Day one of DP World Tour Q-School Final Stage sees Dermot McElroy well placed but Max Kennedy and Gary Hurley both have work to do after a day of low scoring the two courses at Infinitum.
McElroy was taking on the Hills Course for his opening round, but despite the heavy undulations and thick woodland that surrounds the fairways, it’s the easier of the two, and each of the three leading scores from day one were all recorded there.
Starting on the 10th, the Ballymena man was slow out of the traps, trading one birdie and one bogey on his opening side, but he sprang into life on the front side, recording birdies on the first, fifth, seventh and ninth holes to reach the clubhouse having taken 67 blows for a four-under tally that leaves him tied for 26th at the end of day’s play.
Kennedy was also taking on the Hills Course, and also starting on the back nine, but he made two birdies in the opening half to turn at -2. The front side was bookended with bogeys on the first and ninth, with a solitary birdie on the fifth, leaving him on -1 and tied for 73rd.
Hurley was playing on the Lakes Course and got off to a rough start with bogeys on the par-5 second, and par-4 fourth and sixth to slip to +3 after the first third of the round. A birdie on the seventh helped stem the bleeding and he made the turn at +2, but another bogey on 10 left him with major ground to pick up.
The revival began on 11 and two further birdies on 12 and 15 saw him claw his way back to level-par, but he finds himself in 96th place after round one. He’ll not be overly worried, however, as it was on the Hills Course – where he’ll compete in rounds two and four – that he shot matching rounds of 65 in 2022 on his way to earning his DP World Tour card for the first time.
The good news for all three is that they have three more rounds to ensure they are inside the top 65 and ties who will then go on to play the two final rounds at the Hills Course.
Frenchman Felix Mory set the early pace with six birdies and two eagles in a blemish-free round of -10, with Austrian Lucas Nemecz one behind at -9. England’s Callan Barrow and Swiss Benjamin Rusch are in a two-way tie for third at -8, and Edoardo Molinari is among a group of four tied for fifth at -7.