Madden makes first cut on Tour

DUNGANNON’S Jack Madden enjoyed a career first cut on the HotelPlanner Tour at Killeen Castle.

The 25-year-old missed the final two days of action at his previous four tournaments on the series, which is one step below the DP World Tour, but on home soil he achieved one of his season’s goals of getting through to the weekend.

At one stage, it looked as if the Arkansas Stage University graduate was going to be challenging for victory when he recorded a stunning four-under-par opening round to sit second overall on Thursday night.

And Friday started well, with Jack missing a birdie putt on the 11th, which would have kept him firmly in the top three.

Unfortunately, the wheels came off over the next seven holes as five bogies left him nervously waiting to see if he’d make the cut.

“I had a good start, four-under-par after round one and I actually tied the course record for about 45 minutes!,” he beamed.

“I was cruising along rightly and then I made five bogies in the last seven holes.

“So that went from me being third to being outside the top 60 for a long period of time and just squeezing in at the very end!

“I squeezed in at tied 58th, my first cut made, and it was nice to do it at home.”

A five-over-par second round was then followed by the same score on Saturday before Sunday started terribly with six dropped shots on the first seven holes, seemingly consigning him to a last place finish.

But over the final 10 holes, Jack once again found his groove to go seven-under through the closing stretch to climb the leaderboard, while also giving himself a timely confidence boost ahead of further HotelPlanner Tour events at the Dutch Futures event in Holland this coming weekend, followed by the Dormy Open in Sweden.

“I have the unofficial course record for the back nine and that gave me a nice confidence boost,” beamed Jack, who had brother Danny on the bag at Killeen Castle.

“It’s nice to do because we were looking at scores and no-one that week managed to fire in that many birdies that quickly, so it’s nice knowing when I do calm my mind that I can really do things that maybe not a lot of other people can.

“And even to prove that to myself is good. Even though I was six over after seven holes [during the final round], it was nice.

“Obviously, looking back, I was in a very good position to do well and I kind of let that slip a little, but if you had given me five over after I looked at the course last Monday, for four rounds, in the weather we had, I probably would have taken it.

“All good things, because if you had given me a made cut at the start of the week, I probably would have taken it.

“I’m very happy with the progress over the last few weeks and hopefully we can continue that at the Dutch.”