At the start of today’s third round of the Madeira Islands Open BPI-Portugal on the tiny Atlantic island of Porto Santo, Irish golfer Michael Hoey led on seven-under-par, Donegal’s Michael McGeady was one of three players one behind and Meath’s Damien McGrane was tied for fifth only three back.

Hoey and McGeady are both going for their first Tour victories – McGeady is playing only his second event on the circuit – while McGrane broke his duck at the age of 37 last April when he captured the Volvo China Open.

A new “chilled out” attitude is helping Hoey, who back in 2001, and aged only 21 at the time, followed his win in the British amateur championship with an 11th-place finish in the Scottish Open, then helped a Walker Cup team also featuring Luke Donald, Graeme McDowell and Nick Dougherty to victory in America.

They have all gone on to taste Tour success but, since missing the cut at the 2002 Masters by a single stroke, Hoey has made six trips to the qualifying school.

Last November was the first time he came through it but two months ago he was joint second behind Retief Goosen in the Africa Open and now he is hoping to go one better.

“I’m taking a more relaxed view and it’s paying off so far,” he said. “You can put yourself under too much pressure in this game and I just told myself to chill out basically.”

Hoey played some practice rounds with rising star McIlroy last season and, as the youngster prepares for his Masters debut in only three weeks, his compatriot said: “Nobody hits it better than Rory and mentally he’s just so good – at 19 I was an absolute child.”

McGeady suffered real agony at the qualifying school four months ago.

A closing par would have given the 30-year-old from Co Donegal a card, but he bogeyed it.

A double-bogey finish last night will not have hurt as much because he still has 36 holes to repair the damage. It left him alongside Ryder Cup Swede Joakim Haeggman and Argentina’s Estanislao Goya on six-under.