Leading Irish qualifier Galbraith confident

 of winning again at Ballyliffen

FROM IRISH GOLF NEWS
Whitehead’s John-Ross Galbraith claimed the leading qualifier’s silver medal at Ballyliffin and insisted he’s aiming to maintain his 100 percent record in the AIG Irish Amateur Close by winning it for the second time.
The 22-year old international recovered from a double bogey on the second at the  stunning and testing Glashedy Links in Donegal’s Inishowen Peninsula, firing six birdies and dropping just one more shot as he added a 69 to his opening 71 to lead the qualifiers on four under par 140.
The Co Antrim star, one of Ireland’s Home Internationals heroes at Nairn last weekend, finished a stroke ahead of Tramore’s Robin Dawson (70-71) with overnight leader Thomas Mulligan (69-73) from County Louth the only other player to finish the 36-hole qualifying race in the red on two under par.
“I’ve only played the Close once and won it once!” joked Galbraith, who triumphed at Seapoint in 2014 and hopes one day to become a professional.
“I’m just being a wee bit more professional about things, playing in a few pro events has taught me a lesson, how the boys go about their business.
“I’ve really tried to implement that in my game, more practice, doing everything a bit more in control, I’m just trying to get a bit more professional about my golf.
“You have to do that if you want to get somewhere in this game. I’m going to stay amateur next year and try to push for Walker Cup.”
The “cut” fell at 12 over par 156 and exactly 64 players on that mark or better, avoiding the need for playoffs after the countback condition was abandoned in favour of sudden-death for this year’s ”West” and “Close” championships.
Following slow play difficulties in the first round, the GUI implemented a “Ready Golf” policy for the first time yesterday.
Round times were reduced by up to 45 minutes on round one, averaging around four hours and 15 minutes, which was 12 minutes quicker that the “time par” set out by the Championship director.

Do you know what "ready golf" means? Check out the GUI's guide:

• Hitting a shot when safe to do so if a player farther away faces a challenging shot and is taking time to assess their options
• Shorter hitters playing first from the tee or fairway if longer hitters have to wait
• Hitting a tee shot if the person with the honour is delayed in being ready to play
• Hitting a shot before helping someone to look for a lost ball
• Putting out even if it means standing close to someone else’s line
• Hitting a shot if a person who has just played from a greenside bunker is still farthest from the hole but is delayed due to raking the bunker
• When a player’s ball has gone over the back of a green, any player closer to the hole but chipping from the front of the green should play while the other player is having to walk to their ball and assess their shot
• Marking scores upon immediate arrival at the next tee, except that the first player to tee off marks their card immediately after teeing off.