Matthew McClean: NI amateur golfer relives US Masters glory

Matthew McClean briefly topped the leaderboard at last week's US Masters

An amateur golfer from Northern Ireland who briefly took the lead at last week's US Masters says he has been sent dozens of screenshots of the leaderboard.

Matthew McClean, an optican from Belfast, said his family were in Augusta to cheer him on.

He qualified to play by winning the US Mid-Amateur tournament in September.

He carded two birdies in his opening four holes to top the leaderboard for a short time last Thursday.

The 29-year-old told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme.: "As soon as I birdied the first then I knew the guys in front of us hadn't birdied it, so officially you were ahead after one hole.

"There's leaderboards basically all the way around and they have the name of the leader and top tree guys on the boards.

"So I did for about an hour, an hour and a half, see my name on the top of the Masters which was cool, but obviously that was very early days and it was just nice to get off to a good start to calm the nerves."

McClean said his fast start helped calm any nerves

"I've had about 50 people send me a screenshot of it [the leaderboard] so I've got plenty of them."

Despite the fast start, McClean - a Malone Golf Club member - would go on to miss the cut at the Masters, so did not play the final two rounds.

"I think the big thing with playing there [at Augusta] is to keep doubles [bogies] off the board and I made three over the two days which was the difference really," he said.

"I can take some sort of confidence out of it, you know, that you were only a double here or sort of one shot away from making the cut at the Masters which is insane really."

Missing the cut, however, didn't mean having to go home. He was able to stay on and watch the rest of the tournament.

"If you have access to the weekend at the Masters you're not going to go home," he said.

"My family were all there - mum, dad, brother, sister, girlfriend and then a couple of family friends and some friends as well.

"So there was about 14 in the house, which was lively, having a great time at the start of the week.

"There was plenty of support."

He said looking back at his Masters experience, he primarily remembers the highlights.

"The birdie at the first was a massive moment, obviously, to calm yourself down a bit and then to go on and make a birdie at four as well was huge," McClean said.

"But, yeah, I thought I played fine, I wasn't overly nervous at any time."

McClean's victory at the US Mid-Amateur tournament also qualified him for the US Open, being held at Los Angeles Country Club in June.

So will his taste of golf at the top table spur him on to a future professional career?

"Everyone wants to be a professional golfer, but it's a tough job, to get a job in professional golf is a tough thing to do," he said.

"So we'll see what happens."