Conor Purcell is loving being back on home shores and the Portmarnock man is making hay while the sun metaphorically shines and has stormed to the top of the leaderboard at the Black Desert NI Open at Galgorm.
An opening four-under 66 left the leading Irish player in the Road to Mallorca rankings in good stead after round one, doing it the hard way in the tough afternoon conditions that saw heavy rainfall and play suspended for lightning. He came out early on day two and plotted his way round nicely, birdieing three on the front nine and two on the back for a bogey-free 65 that saw him open up a three-shot lead at the top of the board.
“Very pleased,” was his assessment afterwards. “Any time you can go bogey-free it’s very nice, and especially round here. It’s quite demanding, so I did a good job.
“Me and my caddie did a great job. I think there was a lot of tricky wind conditions, a lot cross-winds, and we were getting nice numbers along with hitting good shots, and we gave ourselves plenty of looks. I kept the card clean and managed to hit some good shots.”
One of the more tasking courses off the tee on the 2024 Challenge Tour circuit, placement rather than sheer power has been the chosen tactic of most of the field and Purcell had his tee shots on a string all morning.
“I kept myself in position off the tee and I think it didn’t feel as difficult as it probably should’ve because of that. Hopefully I can keep putting myself in position,” he said.
“More of the same over the weekend. You never know what the weather is going to be like here in Ireland, so we’ll prepare for all conditions, rest up and get ready to go.
“Any time you’re up there, it gives you that extra motivation to keep it going for four days. I’ve been playing nicely this year so hopefully more of the same tomorrow.”
Purcell’s consistency all season has been impressive, though a rare missed cut at last week’s Euram Bank Open – albeit on a vastly different course to the one faced this week – meant that there was a small element of doubt coming in this week, even if he didn’t allow it to creep into his own mind.
“It’s been good,” he said of his mindset, “especially after missing the cut last week. I made sure to tell myself my game wasn’t too far away. It felt very close even though I didn’t make the cut. The game has definitely been there, it’s just about piecing it together for four rounds.”
Irish fans are always quick to get behind one of their own, and contrary to many of the Challenge Tour stops on the circuit, large galleries accompanied him for most of the morning and he plans to give them plenty more to cheer about over the coming days.
“Hopefully,” he smiled. “I love playing in front of people, so I’m looking forward to the weekend. I know everyone supports golf up here really well, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Sadly, local hero Dermot McElroy won’t be joining Purcell for the weekend’s action as he carded a second-successive 73 to leave himself the wrong side of the cutline and too many shots adrift to hope for an afternoon slide to bring him back into the fold.