Todd Clements turned up the heat at the Amgen Irish Open, delivering what he calls one of his most stellar rounds to date.
On the emerald links of Royal County Down, Clements wrapped up the opening day with a crisp five-under-par 66, planting his flag at the summit of the leaderboard, just a notch above the rest.
This English golfer, fresh off his maiden DP World Tour victory at last year’s D+D REAL Czech Masters, came out swinging from the tenth.
He bagged a couple of birdies early on and didn’t let up, capping off the front nine with an eagle that had the crowds buzzing.
However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. After making the turn, Clements stumbled slightly, dropping shots on the second and fourth holes, which saw him merge into the tight pack.
But true to form, he rebounded brilliantly, stringing together back-to-back birdies on the eighth and ninth to clinch the lead after day one.
Todd Clements: I said that to my caddie walking off, “That’s one of the best rounds I’ve played in my life so far.” It’s a hard course and yeah, delighted how it panned out.
For me, I drove it great. I hit a lot of good quality shots, and just kind of hit my ball in the right spaces. My caddie was great today, and you know, he had the course mapped out great and it worked well.
This course is as hard as it gets. Take it day-by-day; cliché. But tomorrow it’s going to be cold; it’s going to be windy and another gruelling test. Sad as it is to say, I’m probably looking forward to it.
Not far behind him, Finland’s Sami Välimäki and Spain’s Alejandro del Rey are hot on his heels, with Rory McIlroy, the hometown hero, whipping the local fans into a frenzy with a trio of birdies to close his round, placing him just two strokes off the lead in a competitive cluster.
Rory McIlroy: It was nice, I felt like I controlled my ball flight well. I’ve been working a little bit on my swing these last couple of weeks.
Yeah, it felt a little better. I’ve probably struggled a lot in left-to-right winds this year, so to sort of control my ball flight a bit and test it out there today was good to see that, you know, I was able to do it when I needed to.
It’s a major championship-calibre golf course. It’s just unfortunate that we don’t have the infrastructure around the golf course to host something like an Open because if we did, it definitely would be able to host an Open Championship.
The fundraising game was strong too, with the first hole alone contributing £29,200 to Make-A-Wish Ireland, thanks to 73 birdies or better.
Amgen’s team, featuring Pádraig Harrington, Shane Lowry, and Séamus Power, added a sweet £2,400 to the pot with their spirited play.
It’s a leaderboard as bunched as a morning tee-time, setting the stage for a riveting round two at the Amgen Irish Open.
Scores after round one:
| 66 T CLEMENTS (ENG), 67 S V?LIM?KI (FIN), A DEL REY (ESP), 68 M ARMITAGE (ENG), T LAWRENCE (RSA), R MCILROY (NIR), F CELLI (ITA), W ENEFER (ENG), 69 L CANTER (ENG), J SMITH (ENG), B STONE (RSA), P WARING (ENG), U COUSSAUD (FRA), D BROWN (ENG), E VAN ROOYEN (RSA), E FERGUSON (SCO), S KJELDSEN (DEN), O WILSON (ENG), A WU (CHN), 70 R NEERGAARD-PETERSEN (DEN), J WALKER (USA), A OTAEGUI (ESP), R MANSELL (ENG), S KEELING (AM) (IRL), F SCHOTT (GER), J PRINSLOO (RSA), C JARVIS (RSA), M PENGE (ENG), A FITZPATRICK (ENG), M MANASSERO (ITA), I CANTERO (ESP), J DANTORP (SWE), 71 Y PAUL (GER), R PARATORE (ITA), R MACINTYRE (SCO), J DE BRUYN (GER), A ROZNER (FRA), J LUITEN (NED), D FICHARDT (RSA), T AIKEN (RSA), A COCKERILL (CAN), J MORRISON (ENG), F LACROIX (FRA), R H?JGAARD (DEN), S JONES (NZL), A SADDIER (FRA), D LAW (SCO), G FORREST (SCO), S JAMIESON (SCO), M SCHWAB (AUT), 72 C HILL (SCO), S LOWRY (IRL), C PURCELL (IRL), M ROTTLUFF (GER), A KNAPPE (GER), L NEMECZ (AUT), T OLESEN (DEN), M KAWAMURA (JPN), N H?JGAARD (DEN), C SYME (SCO), R RAMSAY (SCO), J CAMPILLO (ESP), J GUERRIER (FRA), N BACHEM (GER), M KENNEDY (AM) (IRL), 73 R FOX (NZL), N NORGAARD (DEN), R LANGASQUE (FRA), S GALLACHER (SCO), N ELVIRA (ESP), A PAVAN (ITA), D VAN DRIEL (NED), R CABRERA BELLO (ESP), S TARRIO (ESP), S CROCKER (USA), O STRYDOM (RSA), D GAVINS (ENG), J VEERMAN (USA), F LAPORTA (ITA), T VAILLANT (FRA), S GARCIA (ESP), T LEWIS (ENG), S MANLEY (WAL), R HOSHINO (JPN), C SORDET (FRA), M KINHULT (SWE), A RAI (ENG), P HARRINGTON (IRL), J WINTHER (DEN), D BRADBURY (ENG), M KIEFFER (GER), H HALL (ENG), R FISHER (ENG), J CATLIN (USA), D WHITNELL (ENG), J KO (FRA), C SHINKWIN (ENG), G CHEN (CHN), M JORDAN (ENG), S THORNTON (IRL), 74 T MCKIBBIN (NIR), M SCHNEIDER (GER), G GREEN (MAS), F KJETTRUP (DEN), E KOFSTAD (NOR), E PEPPERELL (ENG), A SULLIVAN (ENG), J SCRIVENER (AUS), L DONALD (ENG), S POWER (IRL), T DETRY (BEL), G HURLEY (IRL), J DEAN (ENG), M KORHONEN (FIN), J HARDING (RSA), H LI (CHN), M BALDWIN (ENG), D HUIZING (NED), C GUGLER (SUI), 75 S FRIEDRICHSEN (DEN), M POWER (IRL), V NORRMAN (SWE), R HISATSUNE (JPN), J GIRRBACH (SUI), E MOLINARI (ITA), S SHARMA (IND), S KANG (KOR), A HIDALGO (ESP), L DE JAGER (RSA), D HILLIER (NZL), M BESARD (BEL), S S?DERBERG (SWE), A WILSON (ENG), P LARRAZ?BAL (ESP), Y KATSURAGAWA (JPN), J GUMBERG (USA), R GOUVEIA (POR), 76 B WIESBERGER (AUT), L SCALISE (ITA), J NICHOLAS (USA), C HANNA (USA), G WIEBE (USA), K APHIBARNRAT (THA), D FRITTELLI (RSA), M ELVIRA (ESP), 77 H LONG (GER), J KRUYSWIJK (RSA), 78 D RAVETTO (FRA), A GARCIA-HEREDIA (ESP), A JOHNSTON (ENG), S BAIRSTOW (ENG), 79 M SOUTHGATE (ENG), J SCHAPER (RSA), S FORSSTR?M (SWE), D MICHELUZZI (AUS), 81 F ZANOTTI (PAR), |
