Murray aces par-four as he bids for second 'South' title and Irish recall

Limerick's Pat Murray knows his hopes of winning a first Irish cap since 2011 may depend on winning the coveted South of Ireland Championship for the second time this week. Photo: Diarmuid Greene / SPORTSFILE

Brian Keogh

Limerick's Pat Murray cashed in his 'get out of jail free' card when he edged out Scotland's Keith Mackenzie on the 19th in the second round of the South of Ireland Championship at Lahinch.

With Irish team captain Pádraig Hogan closely watching the action, the 43-year-old Tipperary native knows his hopes of winning a first Irish cap since 2011 may depend on him lifting the coveted 'South' for the second time this week.

But on a day when he holed his tee shot – an albatross – at the 279-yard 13th just to draw level, he kept his nerve to win with a bogey five on the first extra hole.

Mackenzie, who had holed a 10-footer at the 17th to remain all square and then missed a similar putt for the match at the last, looked odds-on to progress when he hit a great drive down the 19th and Murray bunkered his tee shot in the first trap on the left.

But the Scot came up short in the trap with his approach and, with Murray on in three, he flew the green with his third and missed a three-footer to extend the match.

"I was here to win anyway," Murray said. "And if you are going to win you are probably going to have to get out of jail at least once."

It was not his first albatross in championship competition, having also aced the 16th at Royal Dublin in the Irish Amateur Open.

SLOPE

"It started down the right, moved a bit left and ran up the slope at the back of the green," said Murray, who faces 15-year-old Sean Doyle from Athlone in the third round. "I didn't see it but I'm told it came back down in slow motion and went in."

Murray's Munster team-mate Gary O'Flaherty of Cork was beaten on 20th when Ballybunion's Ed Stack fired an eagle three.

Another international hopeful, Portmarnock's Geoff Lenehan, eased to a 4&3 win over Clonmel's Ronan Purcell while 2009 champion Robbie Canon beat Greg Carew 3&2. North of Ireland champion Chris Selfridge, bidding for his fifth amateur major since 2012, had to work harder than he might have hoped to beat Ardee's Evan Farrell 2&1.

But there was little stress for veterans Arthur Pierse (63) and Eddie Power (49) as they eased their way in the third round with comfortable wins over Dungarvan's Jack Leacy and Carton House's Colin Cunningham respectively.

Shane Lowry never won the 'South' but his younger brother Alan (21) still has a chance after coming back from five down after five to defeat 2010 runner-up Kelan McDonagh on the last.

Lowry confessed that he might be calling his older brother for advice before he takes on Stephen Healy, who beat him last year. "I definitely learn a lot from Shane, just from watching him," Alan said. "He handles himself so well."