Moriarty and Thornton share top spot after dramatic finish

ON a day of low scoring at Cork GC, Colm Moriarty (Glasson Hotel & GC) and Simon Thornton (Tulfarris Golf Resort) carded a pair of six-under par 66s to top the leaderboard at the Cork ProAm.

The duo finished one shot ahead of Limerick’s Tim Rice with David Higgins ( Waterville Links), Michael McDermott (Grange GC) and John Dignam (Slade Valley GC) back on three-under par.

This is the third time this year that Moriarty has been forced to share first place in a PGA event and he was left to rue a closing hole bogey which cost him outright victory.

The 39-year-old got off to a hot start picking up birdies in three of his opening nine holes as he reached the turn in three-under 33.

He parred the 10th, eagled the par-five 11 th and followed up with back-to-back birdies at the 13th and 14 th to reach seven-under for the tournament, only for that dropped shot at the last which resulted in a fine six-under par 66.

Thornton got off to a very quick start with birdies at the first, second and third, and he added two more at the sixth and seventh to make the turn in five-under 31.

His round settled down somewhat on a rollercoaster of a back nine.

He birdied the par-five 11th to reach six-under, dropped a shot at the 13 th and then crucially and dramatically birdied the 18th to join Moriarty at the top of the leaderboard.

Fota Island’s Jack Howard and amateur partners Paul Savage, Liam Walley and PV Burkley grabbed the team prize with 99 points.