2024 Platinum
So daunting were the conditions that a three-over 75 by 30-year-old Finian Dwyer from Celbridge Driving Range, Dublin, was enough to lead the seven qualifiers who'll travel to Scotland in mid-August. There they'll contest the 72-hole Glenmuir Club Professional Championship, being played by Britain and Ireland's top club players over the new Sam Torrance-designed St Andrew Bay course, seven miles from the Home of Golf.
Dwyer was fresh from losing a play-off the previous day to John Murray (Malahide) in the PGA Southern Championship at Arklow. He managed a solitary birdie, at County Louth's short 15th, which went some way to offsetting the four bogeys on his card. A nine-iron to 15 feet at the 152-yard hole sufficed.
But his shot of the day, he reckoned, was a battling 25-foot putt to save par at the 410-yard 12th, which boosted his determination to compile a reasonable score. "The wind was ridiculous", commented Dwyer afterwards, "And it was just as bad downwind as against it. Club selection was a lottery, and the rough was pretty punishing as well."
Murray himself managed to qualify only by winning a three-man play-off for the remaining seventh place after he'd fired a 78. Second time round, downwind on the 433-yard first, he needed only a driver and a lob wedge, and two putts safely put him in the final.
A one-stroke improvement on his 289 aggregate a year ago at the 72-hole final over Saunton, North Devon, would have moved Murray into the leading 20 finishers, which would have given him automatic exemption into the St Andrews final.