Niall Kearney shot a blistering final-round 60 to secure a three-stroke win at the PGA Open Series’ Midland Open at Whittington Heath Golf Club in Staffordshire, coming up trumps in a 156-man field comprised of the leading PGA Professionals in the UK.
Representing the Eddie Doyle Golf Academy in County Laois, the Royal Dublin man found himself six-shots adrift after the first round, despite a six-under 65 that was good for a tie for second, as England’s James Freeman opened with a magical 59.
Undaunted, he took the course in the penultimate group in the second round and had got himself back on level terms by the fifth, following a birdie at the first with an eagle on the second and then another eagle on the fifth as Freeman struggled and played the first five in +1.
Kearney kept the foot down, adding further birdies on seven and eight to take a two-stroke lead at the turn, then stretched his advantage with two more birdies on 10 and 12.
Now with a commanding lead, he birdied 16 and 17 to get to -11 for the day on the par-71 layout, meaning that a birdie at the last would give him his first ever competitive sub-60 round. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be, but he ran out a three-stroke victor over Freeman who recovered to birdie three of his final four holes to take solo second.
This was Niall Kearney’s second Open Series victory after claiming the title at Belvoir Park in 2024 (Pic: PGA)
“I shot a 61 in the final round of a DP World Tour event in Tenerife, so this is now the lowest competitive round I’ve shot, but to be honest, I didn’t even realise what score I was on,” Kearney admitted. “I just got well under-par early and sort of lost track of the score. I just knew that I had to keep going if I was going to try to catch James and I don’t watch leaderboards so even after finishing on 18, I didn’t know where I stood.
“But after James shot 59 on Monday, we all sort of thought we were playing for second place so we could just go out and be aggressive and see where it left us. But I was hitting it well and the putter was behaving itself, so I was just able to keep it going.
“I hit a great tee shot down the last – it’s one of the best holes on the course, 472 yards and slightly into the wind – and I had an 8-iron in, but the pin was hanging off the back and if you miss it big you could even go out of bounds, so I ended up with about a 35-footer. So I didn’t really have a chance to shoot 59, not that I’d have known until afterwards anyway.”
With the win, Kearney sends a strong message to his main challengers ahead of next week’s Irish PGA Championship at Monkstown where he will be going for a fourth win in the PGA in Ireland’s showpiece event.
“I’ve been playing well all year,” he said. “But certainly the last the last two or three weeks, obviously doing a bit of work with Eddie [Doyle] and practicing a lot down in Royal Dublin and I felt as though things were kind of moving on another gear. I played a practice round over over there in Whittington on Sunday and I just hit it pure, literally hitting it really well, so I said ‘Jesus, this is good now, try and bring it into the next couple of days’.”
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