Paul Dunne brilliantly stormed his way to a share of the lead posting a six-under par 66 on day one of the PGA Tour’s Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic.
The Greystones golfer capped his round with three birdies in succession from his seventh hole to join Aussie Matt Jones and American Joel Dahmen sharing the lead in the $US 3.6m event.
“I think to be honest with you, I knew starting out that the back nine in this wind was the trickier nine so you’ve got a lot of 3- and 4- irons into holes and tricky enough greens,” he said.
“I knew the first four or five holes would just kind of be a grind to get through and then the chances would open up after there. Yeah, I mean, my short irons were good.
“My speed on my putting was good, so I gave myself a lot of chances. When I was getting myself in trouble, my chipping was nice.
So yeah, I think it’s just the way it plays. Those holes, 10 through 13, are tough. Even 12, the par 5, is, because of the green playing in the wind, par’s a good score there. I think that’s kind of the difference really.”
Dunne accepted an invitation to return to event after last year finishing T5th and then by finishing top-10 headed to the Houston Open to finish T8th.
“I like the golf course. I feel comfortable here,” Dunne said.
“The couple of loose tee shots I normally hit in a round I can get away with here, so play to my strength a little bit. The breeze blowing for the week is nice, we’re used to that. So yeah, I feel comfortable here. Just a matter of getting some feels in my game to where I can take it to the course.”
Dunne arrived in the Dominican Republic having slowly turned around a poor start to his year when he missed the cut in both Ab u Dhabi and Dubai but since then he’s made four cuts in succession including a T3rd in the Perth Sixes.
“This year, yeah. I played six tournaments in Europe this year, kind of a bit all over the place,” he said.
“It’s been fairly average. I missed the first two cuts and that next four I make one 3rd place, the rest of them average enough. Things are starting to get better, I’m starting to get back in the swing of tournaments.
” Yeah, I guess tournament golf’s so different from practicing. I tend to take a bit of time off over the winter, so it’s nice to get a bit of a stretch going.
“To get this invitation is great for me because it kind of bridges a gap where I wouldn’t have had a tournament for another five or six weeks. It’s nice to fill the gap there with a great event and hopefully I can make the most of it.”
And with Dunne again performing well in a PGA Tour event he was quizzed what would be his ideal season schedule.
“I would like to. I’d like to play a split schedule like a lot of the Europeans, but I’ve got to get top-50 in the world before that. So 166 is a long way from
that, so got a lot of work to do,” he said.
PAUL DUNNE – NOTES
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Mixed eight birdies with two bogeys to share the first-round lead, his second on the PGA TOUR (64/2018 Houston Open)
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Making 16th PGA TOUR start, where his best finish is T5 at this event last year. The top-10 earned him a spot in the filed at the following week’s Houston Open where he posted a T8 result
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Irishman attended the University of Alabama – Birmingham where, as a senior, he finished fifth in the individual competition at the 2015 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship
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First came to prominence at the 2015 Open Championship where, playing as an amateur, he was tied for the lead after three rounds, before posting a final-round 78 to finish T30
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Turned professional later in 2015 and finished T19 at the Alfred Dunhill Championship, his first event as a professional
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In 2017, claimed his first victory, taking the British Masters title by three strokes over Rory McIlroy, after a final-round 61
Seamus Power signed off for a first round 72 while Graeme McDowell a 73.
