Golf Roundup: Smyth feels heat in Ohio

Sharing fifth position as play resumed on Sunday, Smyth hung in well over the front nine, on which he carded 35. But he immediately ran into problems on 10, with a double-bogey 7. Two bogeys the rest of the way were offset by only one birdie, leaving him a fat 38 for the backside and 73 for the round, which dropped him to a share of ninth place at 279 (70-66-70-73). Still, Smyth was nicely consoled by the $61,846 check cut for him by the USGA.
Mark McNulty closed with 67 to get a piece of seventh place at 278 (70-67-74-67), which enriched him by $75,720. Allen Doyle shot a crackling final-round 63 to whisk the title away by a stroke from D.A. Weibring and Loren Roberts, 274 to 275. Doyle’s 63 matches John Miller’s number as the lowest ever recorded in the final round of a USGA championship.

HOOTERS TOUR
After a three-week sabbatical, this circuit resumed operations in Oklahoma, with Gareth Maybin coming off a win in the last event. Maybin showed no signs of rust as he carded eight birdies for a first-round 64 in the Michelob Ultra Classic at Bailey Ranch Golf Club in Owasso. As well as he played in the next three rounds, he couldn’t match that sterling curtain-raiser. He followed with 69s in each of the next two outings, mixing four birdies with one bogey each day. Still in contention on Sunday, he got off to a bad start with a bogey-6 on the opening hole. He lost another stroke on 6, before acquiring his first birdie on 7. He came in with 71, which landed him a slice of 20th place at 15-under-par 273, which was 10 strokes behind the victorious Ben Lammi. Maybin’s earnings of $1,426 weren’t enough to keep him from being passed by Nick Rousey on the money list. The latter leads with $54,840 to Maybin’s $53,535.

CHALLENGE TOUR
Despite 35 Irish starters in the Ryder Cup Challenge at Killarney Fish & Golf Club, Leslie Walker’s joint 25th place finish was the best that the home team could muster. Walker shot 284 (70-73-71-70) to finish four strokes under par and 12 behind the Scottish tandem of Marc Warren and Peter Whiteford. Warren won on the third playoff hole.

Only four other Irish representatives qualified for weekend play. Colm Moriarty finished joint 38th at 286 (68-75-70-73), teen Aaron O’Callaghan shared 42nd position at 287 (70-71-75-71), Mark Murphy earned a piece of 47th place at 288 (70-73-74-71), and Padraig Dooley tied for 57th place at 291 (69-74-76-72).

EUROPEAN TOUR
Damien McGrane continues to hint that a victory may be soon in coming. He was in with a chance at the end of three rounds in the Scandinavian Masters at Kungsangen Golf Club in Sweden. Beginning at the third hole on Saturday, he chipped six strokes off par through the eighth en route to 64 for the day, standing him in fifth place, three strokes off the lead.

But a bogey at the first on Sunday offered a clue that this would not be the day on which McGrane broke his maiden. The birdies were slow in coming (only three for the round), while he was saddled with bogeys at 10, 12 and 13. A share of 11th place at 14-under-par 270 (68-66-64-72) is where he finished, eight strokes behind Mark Hensby and Henrik Stenson, who went to a playoff, where Hensby prevailed.

Peter Lawrie produced a worthwhile effort, getting into 25th position at 273 (67-70-69-67). Gary Murphy’s name graced the bottom of the leaderboard in the 76th spot at 287 (68-70-77-72). Stephen Browne, at 149 (73-76), missed the cut by 11 strokes. Philip Walton, after opening with 76, withdrew from competition.