Paul McBride will take a two shot lead into the final round of the €100,000 K Club Pro-Am after he took route 66 to the top of the leaderboard.
McBride is six-under-par after carding seven birdies with his only bogey coming on the par-5 7th on the Straffan course. The Island man began on the 14th and opened with a birdie before adding two more on the 17th and 18th.
The Alps Tour player birdied the par-5 3rd and the 6th and responded from his dropped shot on 7 with birdies on 8 and 10.
The Dubliner was pleased to put all facets of his game together after a couple of slow weeks on the Alps Tour.
“I’ve been playing quite well and haven’t been scoring, that’s my first low one in a while so I was happy to do it today and go back out tomorrow morning and see what we can do.”
McBride is happy to be playing some competitive golf on home soil, a treat that doesn’t come along too often.
“It’s great, we don’t get to do it much at all especially on the Alps as much as other countries do.
It is nice to be home for a little bit and flying back out on Wednesday.”
The K Club Pro-Am has the largest prize fund in Europe with €20,000 going to the winner and McBride would love to win.
“You see a lot of very good players playing. We also love playing the K Club but when they put up that sort of money for a pro-am it’s very impressive.”
Part of the chasing pack in a share of second place on four-under-par is K Club’s own Liam Grehan who skipped around in 68 shots to sit alongside Tim Rice and Englishman Simon Lilly with all those scores coming on the Straffan course.
“It’s always great to come back and play well at home. It’s one all the members ask how you got on and they get very excited and are enjoying the event. It’s special to play well at home and I’m thrilled to start so well,” said Grehan.
Grehan was delighted with his ball striking but paid tribute to his caddie Conor for keeping him steady after making a double bogey on his second hole. He managed to keep his momentum going and he has been playing well of late with a win coming at the Mullingar Pro-Am.
“It’s funny. Not much is different from a month ago but just a little bit sharper from playing more tournaments and just try to ride the wave and stay patient.”
There are some big hitters in the form of tour players lying in wait on three-under-par including Niall Kearney and Cormac Sharvin as well as Mullingar youngster Daniel Mulligan who managed to go well on the North.
There is a six-way tie for 8th place on two-under including Michael McGeady, Gary Murphy, Damian Mooney, Mark Power, John Murphy and Matthew Daley.