The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Paul Dunne In Contention At The Open
7/17/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – Former UAB men’s golfer Paul Dunne has had an impressive showing at The 144th Open Championship with back-to-back rounds of 69 to be 6-under through 36 holes at The Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland.
The Greystones, Ireland native leads all nine amateurs at the major with a 138 (-6). The score puts Dunne in a tie for 10th place on the leaderboard, four strokes behind leader Dustin Johnson, with the remainder of the second round to be played on Saturday morning. Play was halted for the day due to darkness after a three-hour weather delay early in the morning suspended play.
Dunne had a great start in the first round with four birdies in the first nine holes. He finished with just one bogey and 13 pars in the opening 18 holes to be in a tie for 18th heading into the second round on Friday.
In the second round, the 2014 C-USA Golfer of the Year opened with eight pars before sinking his first birdie of the day on the ninth hole. Dunne then made two-straight birdies on the 14th and 15th holes to get to 6-under. He bogeyed the 16th, but finished with his fourth birdie of the day on 18 to close out the round with a 69 (-3).
Dunne will make the cut after just missing out in his first appearance last year at The Open. If he remains in the top 10 after the second round concludes, Dunne will become just the third amateur to be in the top-10 after 36 holes at The Open.
Fellow former Blazer Graeme McDowell is also in contention to make the cut after the end of the second round. McDowell has shot even-par 72 in the first two rounds and is tied for 62nd.
The second round will resume at 7 a.m. BST/1 a.m. CST on Saturday. Live coverage of The Open will air on ESPN.
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