Staff WriterIf you’re looking for a man who can tame both golf balls and gale-force guesswork, step right up and meet Dermot McElroy.
The Northern Irishman produced a bogey-free five-under-par 66 to take the early lead at The Dutch Futures, proving that sometimes perseverance—and a little bit of luck with the crosswinds—pays off.
Starting on the first, McElroy rattled in three birdies on the front nine to turn in 32. What followed was seven consecutive pars that looked more stubborn than stylish, before he lit up the finish with back-to-back birdies, including a hole-out on the par-five 18th that had the gallery buzzing.
“It was very tricky out there today,” McElroy admitted. “I think there were only two holes, one into the wind and one downwind, the rest were crosswind, so it was quite tricky.
“The front nine was reasonably calm but, as I say, there were a lot of crosswinds, and it was quite gusty. It was hard to tell if it was slightly into or slightly down, which caught me out a couple of times, especially with the wedge shots.”
For a man who has missed three consecutive cuts on the Road to Mallorca and sits 94th in the Rankings with just six events left before the Rolex Grand Final, this round felt like the first breath of fresh air after months underwater.
“A good week here would be huge,” he said. “To be honest, I’ve played terrible all year barring one good result. I’ve been practising really hard all season, and I’m really pleased with how I am starting to hit the ball.
“I think I did everything well out there today. I drove the ball well and my iron play was good. I only missed a couple of greens and managed to get up and down.”
The leaderboard behind him looks like the start of a Eurovision lineup. France’s Nathan Legendre and Scotland’s Euan Walker sit just one shot adrift on four under par. A pack of predators lurk a shot further back at three under:
Spaniards Lucas Vacarisas and Santiago Tarrio, Frenchmen Maxence Giboudot and Andoni Etchenique, Kiwi Sam Jones, Germany’s Tiger Christensen, the UAE’s Joshua Grenville-Wood and South Africa’s Daniel van Tonder.
It’s a cosmopolitan chasing pack, but right now, the man with the swagger belongs to Ballymena.
McElroy will tee it up in round two of The Dutch Futures at 1:40 pm alongside France’s Julien Sale and Spain’s Alvaro Hernandez Cabezuela, hoping to hold on to his slender lead when play begins at 7:30 am local time.
