Omagh’s Oscar hoping to lead Ulster to Interpro success

OMAGH’S Oscar Murphy has faced quite the dilemma over the past week.

The 20-year-old earned a place in final qualifying for The Open as fifth reserve after narrowly missing out on a play-off. He finished  in a tie on +2 at The Island with eight others on the day when only 10 were certain of making it through regional qualifying.

At that stage it looked like his Open dream and the chance of teeing it up at Royal Portrush next month had disappeared, but on Tuesday morning he was informed he was in final qualifying at Dundonald Links in Scotland alongside the likes of Lee Westwood, Jamie Donaldson, who won the Irish Open on the Dunluce Links back in 2012, Alex Noren, Branden Grace and YouTube star, Peter Finch.

Happy days, you’d think. Unfortunately not for Oscar as final qualifying for The Open was scheduled for the same day as the first practice round of the men’s Interprovincial Championship at Knightsbrook where the former Omagh Academy pupil was also meant to be teeing it up for Ulster.

That meant it was decision time for young Murphy and what a quandary he was left with – take a punt and go to final qualifying for The Open against a field of seasoned professionals or remain at the forefront of Irish amateur golf where he has a greater chance of glory.

After plenty of thought, debate and self-doubt, the young man made his decision and this week he will be representing his province in County Meath, rather than taking a Hail Mary crack at qualifying for The Open at his ‘home’ club, Royal Portrush, where he is a member.

“It’s the toughest decision I’ve ever had to make,” he admitted. “If I go to final qualifying I’d be coming home, most likely, on Tuesday night with, and I’m not being negative, nothing to show for it and I’ll be sitting at home Wednesday, Thursday, Friday when the Interpro’s are going on.

“Whereas, if I play at the Interpros and they go well I’ll be at the top in Irish golf, so that’s what I’m going to do and then next year I’ll try to make it through qualifying [for The Open] and hopefully the same thing doesn’t happen because if it does, I’ll pick final qualifying because I’ll have Ulster under my belt.”

Having made his final decision to represent Ulster this coming week, Murphy will go into the Interprovincial Championships in fine form after carding a two-over-par return at The Island during regional qualifying for The Open, despite having never been on the course before. But he admits, he will need his putter to warm up because his putting ultimately cost him last Monday.

“If I’d putted better I wouldn’t have been near the play-off, I’d have got through automatically,” he observed.

“Front nine, holes six and seven, I made bogey from 90 yards, which was a kick in the teeth. I missed three times inside eight feet, two of them being a four footer and a five footer and obviously I bogeyed the last, but that was a good bogey because if I had doubled it, I wouldn’t even have got into the play-off.

“Putting has always been up and down and quite streaky. I’ll have the odd day when I’ll hole everything, but that only happens every six months! But I got myself tee to green, my proximity was very good.

“I drove the ball on the fairway very well, hit the greens, gave myself good looks at birdie.

“My game is in good shape, I played very well and I’m happy with my game.”

Meanwhile, Dungannon’s Jack Madden, who won regional qualifying last year, missed out on this occasion after scoring +4 last Monday, while Jack Kane finished well off the pace and Dwayne Mallon was forced to withdraw due to illness. He has also been forced to pull out of the Ulster team at Knightsbrook this week.