Gary Hurley didn't waste much time in getting a competitive card back into his hand, this time in his new status as a professional. The 22-year-old Waterford player – who contributed 2½ points to Britain and Ireland's record Walker Cup success at Lytham on Sunday – shot an opening round 71, one under par, in the European Tour's stage one of qualifying at The Roxburghe in Scotland.
An impressive run of birdie-eagle-birdie from the sixth enabled Hurley to turn in 33 and further back-to-back birdies at the 10th and 11th moved him to five-under on his round until a late stumble, with a double-bogey on the 12th and back-to-back bogeys on the 15th and 16th brought him back to earth.
Hurley’s 71 left him in tied-13th position after the first round of the four day qualifier, as he seeks to move on to stage two in Spain in November.
A quartet of players – Scottish duo Neil Fenwick and Neil Henderson, Welshman Rhys Enoch and England's Reece Phillips – shot four-under-par 68s to share the first round lead, although an number of Irish players featured prominently towards the top of the leaderboard.
Alan Dunbar, who was one of the heroes on the winning 2011 Walker Cup team, opened with a 69 and Rory McNamara shot a first round 70. Hurley was joined on the 71 mark by Colm Campbell, a current Irish amateur international and Jonathan Caldwell, who featured in the 2007 Walker Cup alongside Rory McIlroy.
Richard O'Donovan (72), Richard Kilpatrick (73), Dermot McElroy (74), Richard Bridges (74) and Brian Casey (75) all have some work to do.
