Liam Nolan will have to produce something special if he is to reignite his DP World Tour promotion bid after he fell nine shots off the pace on day one of the Rolex Grand Final.
Nolan, making his debut at the season ending HotelPlanner Tour event, carded a two-over 74 to languish in 39th place out of 45 players as Scotland’s Euan Walker leads the way on seven-under after a bogey-free 65. Nolan has a mountain to climb to secure the top-2 finish he needs after he entered the week ranked 43rd in the Road to Mallorca race with 20 DP World Tour cards available.
“I feel like the good stuff is very good, I just need to stay really focused out there and keep the damage to a minimum because the birdies are there. If I can cut out the errors I should be able to climb up the leaderboard,” said Nolan who is 43rd in the Road to Mallorca Rankings with 20 DP World Tour cards available.
The Galway man started well with four successive pars and a birdie on the 5th. He made the turn at one-over following three bogeys in four holes but responded brilliantly with birdies on the 10th, 11th and 13th to put him within two shots of the lead.
But the sloppy errors creeped in again and this time there was no time to recover. Dropped shots at the driveable par-4 15th, 16th and par-3 17th left him at plus two although he stopped the bleeding with a closing par.
“Very tough finish,” lamented the 25-year-old. “Had a tough finish to the front nine but bounced back with three birdies on the back nine with a few good chances coming up and I just hit some loose shots. Not the opening day I wanted but still three days to go and hopefully I can cut out the mistakes.”
One of his unforced errors was a topped tee shot off the par-4 9th. His 3-wood barely made it over the hazard which is 50 yards short of the fairway. Left with almost 250 yards to the green he managed to gouge his approach into the greenside bunker but couldn’t escape with a heroic par save.
“I topped a 3-wood on the 9th which I haven’t done since I was 12! To make a few birdies then and get the round back in the direction I wanted it going was a good response. I was very happy with how I came back after that.”
It was a day where Nolan was punished for every poor drive or wayward approach while he felt he put himself under too much pressure on the greens.
“I never had the speed of the greens out here. They are probably the fastest we have played out here with the grain and the wind out here. That’s definitely something to work on to keep the pressure off myself.”
Meanwhile, in the G4D Tour Series Finale, Brendan Lawlor had a day to forget as he slumped to a seven-over 79 to lie ten shots behind the prolific Kipp Popert who breezed to a three-under 69 to lead by six shots with two rounds to go.
In the net category Irish hopes are still very much alive in Mark Clougherty who shares the lead with Daniel Slabbert of South Africa on four-over.
“A mixed bag,” reflected Clougherty, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and complex Regional Pain Syndrome in his right leg and foot, affecting his nervous system.
“On the front nine, I struggled for the first four or five holes. I started to settle in with my driver, struggled with my irons and then on the back nine found my groove and I was far, far better.”
