Dermot fires opening round of one-under par in Irish Open

But the 19-year-old Ballymena amateur will reflect upon a costly double bogey six at the 484-yard final hole, which prevented him from being further up the leaderboard on the first day.

Having been part of the opening three-ball of the tournament, who started their rounds at 7.30am, Dermot made a solid start with pars at the opening two holes, before notching his first birdie at the par three third, only to lose that shot at the fourth.

The same scenario unfolded with another birdie two at the sixth, only to be followed again with a bogey at the seventh

The real highlight of Dermot’s round came at the short par five ninth where he carded an eagle three to catapult himself up to fifth place on the leaderboard at that stage.

Boosted by that, McElroy then had back-to-back birdies at 10 and 11 but those two shots went again at 13 and 16 and despite another birdie at 17, that double bogey at the last was a cruel blow.

On a course which McElroy has considerable experience of, he will have been heartened by his opening performance and will feel confident of making the cut if he can produce another good round on Friday.

Meanwhile, the other player with Ballymena connections in the field, Chris Devlin, opened with a level par round of 72.

Devlin, who now resides in Florida, and who received a late invitation to compete, had made a blistering start and was -4 at one stage but he ran into bogey trouble in his back nine and it required a par on his final hole to get him back to level par.