Dundalk’s Caolan Rafferty, champion of three years ago (2019), leads the 2022 West of Ireland after shooting an opening round of six-under-par 65.
Rafferty, who works as a greenkeeper by day at Dundalk golf club, birdied three of his closing five holes, including the 18th, the lead the field at the end of the opening day’s strokeplay.
The 132-strong field will be play three strokeplay rounds before the top 16 golfers make the cut for the matchplay stages on Easter Monday and Tuesday.
Rafferty sat down for a chat with Ocean FM Sport’s Austin O’Callaghan after his impressive opening round.
Co Sligo’s TJ Forde is the leading local golfer after Friday’s opening round.
He carded a two-under-par 69 to lie sixth on the leaderboard, four shots behind the leader.
Find a range of player post-round interviews on the Ocean FM Sport Twitter feed.
View the full leaderboard here.
