South Africa’’s Trevor Immelman discovered that playing a course ‘blind’’ wasn’’t necessarily a handicap as he fired an eight under par 64 to lead at the halfway stage of the 36-hole JP McManus Pro-Am at Adare Manor Hotel & Golf Resort, Limerick, Ireland.
Immelman set the pace with his eight birdie haul to lead by three shots from England’’s Luke Donald, Padraig Harrington of Ireland and World Number One, Tiger Woods of the United States.
Immelman laughed: “I had my first look today and it didn’’t do me any harm. It was a fun day. We are here for charity, which is the main reason for the event, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I thought it was an incredible course in fantastic condition and I had a great day.”
Woods flew in from America where he finished second behind Jim Furyk in the Cialis Western Open, and in the process became the first player to break the $50 million barrier on the US PGA Tour. Jet lag and a fever didn’’t prevent the Masters Champion from racking up a five-birdie 67, the same score as Donald and Harrington.
Harrington, who missed the cut in the Smurfit European Open, ran out of ink in his brand new pen after just nine holes, signing so many autographs for a crowd in excess of 20,000.
He commented: “It’’s just fantastic out there. JP has brought a great assembly of players here for a worthy cause and this is one of the loveliest places in Ireland to play. It’’s majestic and it was great to play without too much stress and pressure.”
Australian Green’’s team led after the first round of the Pro-Am with a score of 54, followed by Christy O’’Connor Jnr, Scott McCarron and Lee Westwood, whose teams all finished on 57.
