Thoroughbred Kelly takes Curragh stakes

John Kelly galloped around The Curragh in Kildare yesterday in a sizzling 65 shots to leave the field in his wake and to win the club’s annual €7,500 PGA Pro-am tournament.

The St Margaret’s Club professional pencilled in half-a-dozen birdies and shot down a rare eagle two, as well, with just one blot on his card, a bogey four at the fourth hole. That was after the eagle arrived at the previous hole with the bogey halving the advantage gained.

Kelly tightened the reins at the sixth hole to make birdie three and set off on a hat-trick of birdies as he clipped a shot off the long seventh and made another three at par four eight, to have a front nine of four-under-par 33.

He had no bogeys on the back nine but highlighted his card with three birdie twos, spread over the 11th, 14th and 16th holes for an inward run of 32.

The scoring was as hot as the scorching sun with the winner just two strokes ahead of John Dignam and David Ryan. Dignam also shot an eagle but at the long first hole and he had five birdies along with three bogey fives. Ryan was really on the birdie trail as he bagged eight of them but, also, had three bogey fives, including one at the 18th hole.