Grégory Bourdy took full advantage of the local knowledge bestowed upon him by Darren Clarke as a seven under par round of 65 moved him into the joint lead alongside Jeev Milkha Singh in the first round of the Irish Open at Royal Portrush Golf Club…
The Frenchman carded a superb seven under par first round of 65 late in the day to join Singh at the top of the leaderboard and equal the course record at the Dunluce Links, just as the Indian had done earlier on a weather-affected opening day.
After playing his practice round on Tuesday alongside Royal Portrush regular Clarke, Bourdy did not sign for a single bogey as he racked up seven birdies in front of record crowds, with 23,283 attending the opening day.
Play was suspended for 95 minutes midway through the opening round of the first Irish Open to be held in Northern Ireland since 1953, but Singh came in just before the delay and set the pace early on thanks chiefly to a six under par front nine of 30.
Bourdy then followed suit, and he had a certain local hero to thank for his success.
“I played with Darren on Tuesday and it was great,” he said. “He gave me a lot of advice, and it was fantastic to play with a guy who won The Open the year before, on his home course too.
“He knows the course really well, and he was great with me on Tuesday. For sure, it helped me a lot today and I’m going to thank him. I will try to play the same game tomorrow and for the rest of the week.”
There were six players a shot off the lead on six under par, with France’s Edouard Dubois, Oscar Floren of Sweden, Englishmen Mark Foster and Andrew Marshall, Mikko Ilonen of Sweden and Matthew Zions of Australia all tied for third place.
The winner of this tournament in 2007, Padraig Harrington, was lurking a shot further behind alongside nine others in tied ninth place after a five under par opening round of 67.
World Number Two Rory McIroy was five shots off the lead going into the second day after a two under par round of 70, while Graeme McDowell and Clarke were a shot further back on one under.
