Hoey Leads Irish at M2M Open

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Michael Hoey finished two under par after a round of 70 at the M2M Russian Open at Tseleevo Golf & Polo Club near Moscow, and finished a shot ahead of fellow Ulsterman Gareth Shaw, Waterville's David Higgins, with Rathmire's Alan Dunbar on three over. 

Damien McGrane carded a seven-over-par 12 on the par-five eighth on his way to an eight over round of 80 and faces a tough second rounf on Friday to get inside the cut.

Simon Dyson produced a bogey-free round to sit among three players tied for the lead on the opening day with a five-under-par 67 that included five birdies, putting him at the head of the field alongside Swede Rikard Karlberg and China’s Liang Wen-chong.

Friday's round continues a return to form for Dyson, who made just seven cuts in his first 15 events of 2013 but then finished fifth in the Alstom Open de France and tied 12th in the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open on his last two appearances to climb to 81st in the Race to Dubai.

“That was as good as I have played for a long, long time,” Dyson told europeantour.com. “I missed one fairway and that was by a yard and then just hit so many quality iron shots. It was coming straight out of the middle of the clubface all day and when you are hitting it like that then you just have to enjoy and try to take as many chances as you can.

“I don’t want to say I am disappointed with five under because you can never be too disappointed with that, but it could have been a lot better because I missed a few real good birdie chances and left a few shots out there today. But, as I said, I am not going to get too down on myself because I played so well out there today and I just can’t wait to get back out there now because I am feeling good.”

Karlberg overcame a slow start to post the best round of the morning starters, bogeying the first two holes before atoning with five birdies as well as a pitch-in eagle at the long eighth, and Liang carded six birdies against a solitary bogey.

Dyson’s compatriots Matthew Baldwin and James Morrison, Javier Colomo of Spain and Italian Alessandro Tadini all went round in 68 to lie one off the lead. Jarmo Sandelin of Sweden, who shot 77, managed a hole in one on the 220-yard 16th.

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Mixed Fortunes for Maguire Twins

Teenager Lisa Maguire is only just off the pace after a splendid opening round at the European Ladies Individual Championship in Finland yesterday. The 18-year-old Slieve Russell star fired a two-under-par 69 over the Aura course in Turku to be two strokes behind Emile Pedersen from Denmark.

But twin sister Leona struggled to an 82.

Starting at the 10th, Lisa covered her first nine holes in 35 – one under par – and got to four under with another couple of birdies – but the two bogeys in the last three holes wrecked her chances of leading overnight. 

Leona had a round she will want to forget in a hurry as she did not card one birdie and had two double bogeys and seven bogeys – she was at sixes and sevens in every department. Chloe Ryan had a mixed round – she had an eagle on the third and slumped to back-to-back double bogeys on the seventh and eighth but birdies on 16 and 17 helped her finish on 75.

Irish champion Paula Grant had an horrendous homeward half, taking 42, including a double bogey and five bogeys. Jessica Carty and Maria Dunne each hit 78 as well.

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Colm Shares Concra Wood Lead

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Paul Doherty and Colm Moriarty share the lead on three under par at the Kingspan Concra Wood Open after each shot 69 on the opening day of the 888poker.com PGA EuroPro Tour event.

The pair are one clear of the six golfers who share third place on two under at the par-72 course in Castleblayney, Ireland.

Scotsman Doherty (Vale Hotel) carded birdies on the first, fifth and 11th to sign for an opening-round 69. The 28-year-old missed the cut at Concra Wood in 2012 but didn’t suffer a single bogey in the opening round of this season’s tournament on Wednesday.

Moriarty, who plays out of Glasson Hotel and Golf Club in Westmeath, started his round on the tenth and turned home two under after birdies at 15 and 17. A four on the par-five first took him to three under and he closed out the remainder of his round to par, matching Doherty’s 69 to share the lead ahead of day two.

A finish which featured an eagle at 15 and birdies at 17 and 18 saw last year’s Kingspan Concra Wood Open winner Billy Hemstock (Teignmouth GC) transform a score of two over par to sign for a two-under 70, leaving him as one of six players just one stroke off the lead.

Irishmen Ruaidhri McGee (Rosapenna), Neil O’Briain (Old Conna Golf Club) and Michael McGeady are also two under after day one, as are Scotland’s Jordan Findlay (Paul Lawrie Golf Centre) and England’s Alex Belt (De Vere/Snainton), who won his first888poker.com PGA EuroPro Tour event at the PDC & WSL Open at Collingtree Park in June.

A two-hour highlights package of the event will be broadcast on Sky Sports HD at 7pm on Tuesday, August 6, repeated on Wednesday, August 7.

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Captain McGinley Backs McIlroy

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Europe's Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley says Rory McIlroy will bounce back from his recent poor run of results.

McIlroy missed the cut in last week's Open Championship at Muirfield, labelling his own play "brain dead" following an opening round of 79, three weeks after also missing the weekend in the Irish Open at Carton House.

The 24-year-old Northern Irishman won five times last year, including his second major by eight shots in the USPGA Championship, to finish top of the money list on both sides of the Atlantic.

But he has yet to record a win in 2013 since a controversial multi-million pound switch to Nike in January, also damaging his reputation by walking off the course during his defence of the Honda Classic and bending a club out of shape during the final round of the US Open last month.

McGinley, who will want a fully firing McIlroy at Gleneagles next year against the United States, told Standard Sport: "At 46 years of age, one of the lessons I've learned is that you have to know who you are and play to your strength, not your weakness.

"Looking back, when I was 24, I wish I got to know myself better. That would have helped my golf.

"Hopefully, Rory will get to know himself really well. Keep doing what works for him. Identify his package, making it stronger and stronger. Rory is not arrogant. He has a lot of common sense and is willing to listen. He will learn and I have no doubt he will come back."

McGinley also pointed to how McIlroy recovered from last year's Open disappointment at Royal Lytham, where he could only finish 60th.

He predicted that the Northern Irishman would target his defence of the year's final major, the US PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York next month, as the time to find his best.

"Everybody was saying Rory was playing rubbish (after Lytham)," added Dubliner McGinley. "A month later he went to the US PGA and won by eight."

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Higgins and Company in Russia

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David Higgins to action days after the Open Championship, an event he failed to qualify for the after he discovered he was carrying fifteen clubs in  his bag at the qualifier in North Berwick at the start of July.

Higgins is joined by Michael Hoey, Alan Dunbar, Damien McGrane, and Gareth Shaw in an event that sees  the European Tour this week return to Russia for the first time in five years with the M2M Russian Open at the stunning Tseleevo Golf and Polo Club.

After three successful years hosting the Challenge Tour, this Jack Nicklaus designed course hosts European Tour competition for the first time with all three previous winners in the field looking to rekindle that winning feeling.

Spain’s Carlos Del Moral (2010), England’s Sam Little (2011) and Frenchman Alex Kaleka (2012) have also tasted success here and looking for repeat performances, as is the current course record holder, Tommy Fleetwood, who shot a six under par 66 in the 2010 M2M Russian Challenge Cup.

Michael Campbell, the 2005 US Open Champion, is joined by a host of European Tour champions including India’s most successful golfer, Jeev Milkha Singh, former Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year and Portugal Masters Champion Tom Lewis and six-time Tour winner Simon Dyson.

It is also an opportunity for some of the lesser lights to shine and secure their place among the game’s elite for next season, much as Peter Uihlien did in Madeira and Simon Thornton in St Omer, and for Russia’s golfers to showcase their emerging talent.

The three Russian professionals in the field are former tennis grand slam champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Andrey Pavlov and Konstantin Lifanov and they are joined by five Russian amateurs.

Russia has provided the launchpad for a number of players over the years, including Jamie Donaldson, winner of the 2012 Irish Open and this year’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Champions, whose first professional victory came in the Challenge Tour in Russia in 2002.

The last time the M2M Russian Open was played on The European Tour, Sweden’s Mikael Lundberg claimed the title in 2008. This was three years after he won the event for the first time in 2005 and he will hoping to become the first player to win the title three times. Indeed, Lundberg was the last player to win the same European Tour event for their first two Tour titles.

Tseleevo Golf and Polo Club, a classic Jack Nicklaus Design, has been carved out of mature forestland which adds character to the shape of all the holes combined with natural looking water features which compliment this majestic course. It has received rave reviews from those players who have faced the challenge over the last three years as one of the finest courses on the schedule.

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