Dunlea charges past the winning post at Rathsallagh

Graeme Dunlea fired a birdie blitz at Rathsallagh to win the €8,000 Ruby Walsh Crumlin Hospital Research Pro-am Tournament but still had only one stroke to spare over in-form Neil O’Briain and Jimmy Bolger.

Adare Manor’s Dunlea collected a bag of birdies, half-a-dozen in fact, in his sizzling 67, five-under-par, with just the one blot on his impressive card. That was a bogey five at the 15th hole but he soon shrugged off that mild setback.

The winner did most of his work on the front nine which he covered in three-under-par 33.

Dunlea birdied the par four second hole and followed by trimming the long sixth to four blows. He pencilled in another birdie three at nine for 33 over the opening stretch. The short 13th hole was reduced to two strikes and the par four next hole took just three strokes to complete.

Following that bogey five at 15, Dunlea recovered the lost ground with another birdie three at 18. In all, he sprinkled four birdie threes over his card.

O’Briain also had six birdies but two bogeys while Bolger began with eagle at the long first hole, added four birdies and two bogeys.

Newland’s Cormac Hennessy and his three amateurs won the team event on 98 points.