McGrane primed for first Tour victory
Sunday August 7th 2005

BERNIE McGUIRE

at Gleneagles

A NEAR flawless display has Damien McGrane primed to challenge for his first Tour victory in the inaugural Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles. McGrane birdied three of the last four holes in a score of 69 to move to within three strokes of the lead on the Centenary course.

Belgium's Nicolas Colsaerts heads the field on eight under par and two strokes clear of England's Richard Bland and Italian's Emanuele Canonica on six under par with McGrane and Welshman Bradley Dredge next best on five under.

McGrane is chasing a first ever victory in 86 events on Tour and has set about achieving that goal in recent weeks with some eye-catching efforts including sixth in June's Smurfit European Open and 11th in last week's Scandinavian Masters after lying in fifth place heading to the final day.

The 32-year old Carlanstown golfer pared his first nine holes yesterday before igniting his push up the leaderboard with a stunning seven iron second shot at the par four, 10th hole, that stopped right on the edge of the hole. McGrane then bogeyed the 11th but at the 15th, he hit his second shot to 15 feet for a birdie and then at par five 16th, he played a bunker shot to five feet for birdie.

At the last, he was on the green in two and two putted for a fourth birdie of the round and a third round that also included just 26 putts.

"All in all it was a pretty solid round and that finish has me on a bit of high heading to the last day," said McGrane. "I'm in a good position and I have been up there a few times now, so I will be hoping to capitalise on my position and go forward again. I was well placed at this same time last week in Scandinavia and yet shot a one over final round that felt like an 80 but these things happen. But it will be hopefully onward and upward tomorrow."

The weekend fate of Murphy, Lawrie, Walton and Browne was not known until 7.30pm Friday when the cut-off mark of four over par was confirmed. Browne and Lawrie were lying at four over par while Murphy and Walton were at three over par, and it was Welshman Stuart Manley who made sure of the four over par cut when he could only manage a par at the par five, 18th.

"I was following the situation closely and was expecting to be on a 10pm flight back to Dublin," said Lawrie. "But it was good to make the cut even though it was right on the mark because if you are not playing on the weekend in this game, you're not being paid."

Lawrie grabbed four birdies in his third round of 71 to move to three over par for the event while Murphy had six birdies in his round but undid most of his good work with a 17th hole double bogey in a score of 72.

It was Walton who made the most of his opportunities and dropping just one stroke in a score of 70 to advance his score to one over par.

Meanwhile, Michael Hoey is hopeful of first win this season on the secondary Challenge Tour. The former British Amateur champion was first reserve into the Johnnie Walker Classic at Gleneagles but failed to make it into the tournament proper despite a number of withdrawals over the first two days.

Hoey was on the Gleneagles range yesterday in the company of Peter Lawrie and Gary Murphy honing his game ahead of this week's Russian Open in Moscow. "It's always pretty disappointing when you are the first reserve and you don't get into an event but the facilities are great here at Gleneagles and I've made the most of them this week working hard on my game," he said. "But I'm determined to be back on the main Tour full time next year."

Hoey has contested 17 of the 19 events on this year's Challenge Tour and is currently lying 10th on the money list with the eventual top-15 moving onto the main tour in 2006.