Paul Dunne returned a four-under-par 68 to fire himself right back into contention after day two of the 2018 Volvo China Open.
The Greystones man had an indifferent day yesterday but limited the mistakes in a much improved second round that sees him move into a share of 15th on five-under-par, just four shots off the lead.
Dunne fired six birdies and just the two dropped shots on a windy day in Beijing as he looks to bounce back from his missed cut last week in Morocco having started the tournament as favourite.
At the summit, Matt Wallace fired a battling 70 at Topwin Golf & Country Club to hold the halfway lead.
The Englishman was one shot off the lead heading into day two and an impressive grinding effort meant he ended the day one ahead of the field at nine under.
Australian Jason Scrievner had looked set to be the man to catch but a double-bogey on the ninth dropped him to eight under alongside Spain’s Nacho Elvira and American Sihwan Kim.
Spanish pair Jorge Campillo and Adrian Otaegui were at seven under with Frenchman Julien Guerrier and South Korean Soomin Lee.
Wallace has been a serial winner in recent seasons, claiming six victories – including five in a row – on the Alps Tour in 2016 before his wire-to-wire triumph at the Open de Portugal at Morgado Golf Resort last season.
He won a second European Tour title at the Hero Indian Open last month and Friday’s two under effort in windy conditions means he will be in contention again over the weekend.
“It was tough all day, the wind picked up in the afternoon,” he said. “I was two under after eight holes and was just thinking we can get a couple more birdies on the back nine. But the wind just picked up and I could not get it close enough.
“There were a lot of guys on eight under par this morning and I tried to push on and widen the gap but the weather didn’t really allow me to score. Hopefully the weather will be kind.
“I am playing nice golf so to be ahead with the tough conditions today is a nice feeling and I am going to bring that over to the weekend.”
Scores:
135 M Wallace (Eng) 65 70,
136 J Scrivener (Aus) 67 69, S Kim (USA) 70 66, N Elvira (Esp) 69 67,
137 A Otaegui (Esp) 68 69, S Lee (Kor) 68 69, J Guerrier (Fra) 68 69, J Campillo (Esp) 69 68,
138 J Norris (Aus) 74 64, N Bertasio (Ita) 65 73, S Jamieson (Sco) 67 71, J Smith (Eng) 69 69, A Björk (Swe) 66 72, J Wang (Kor) 72 66,
139 R Gouveia (Por) 71 68, M Kawamura (Jpn) 69 70, P Dunne (Irl) 71 68, R Lee (Can) 71 68, S Horsfield (Eng) 69 70, J Luiten (Ned) 70 69, P Larrazábal (Esp) 70 69,
140 H Li (Chn) 70 70, G Bhullar (Ind) 68 72, S Vincent (Zim) 66 74, M Manassero (Ita) 72 68, D Jin (Chn) 64 76, A Chesters (Eng) 72 68, X Luo (Chn) 72 68, G Green (Mas) 73 67, A Quiros (Esp) 69 71, J Morrison (Eng) 70 70, J Suri (USA) 71 69, A Pavan (Ita) 68 72, H Wu (Chn) 73 67,
141 A Dodt (Aus) 69 72, J Choi (Kor) 69 72, C Sordet (Fra) 71 70, A Wu (Chn) 70 71, S Sharma (Ind) 69 72, T Olesen (Den) 74 67, S Kapur (Ind) 73 68, P Meesawat (Tha) 73 68, M Ilonen (Fin) 71 70, A Atwal (Ind) 69 72, R Wattel (Fra) 72 69, L Jensen (Den) 73 68, M Kinhult (Swe) 68 73, T Pulkkanen (Fin) 70 71, Y Ikeda (Jpn) 69 72,
142 M Shin (USA) 71 71, P Pittayarat (Tha) 68 74, J Janewattananond (Tha) 74 68, A Levy (Fra) 69 73, R Fox (Nzl) 70 72, C Hanson (Eng) 71 71, P Khongwatmai (Tha) 70 72, K Joshi (Ind) 71 71,
143 J Lagergren (Swe) 73 70, M Fraser (Aus) 72 71, D Lipsky (USA) 68 75, Y Liu (Chn) 70 73, K Horne (RSA) 69 74, L Bjerregaard (Den) 70 73, A Rai (Eng) 73 70, M Tabuena (Phi) 71 72, A Da Silva (Bra) 70 73, M Siem (Ger) 75 68, E Molinari (Ita) 72 71, K Aphibarnrat (Tha) 73 70,
CUT
144 M Pavon (Fra) 71 73, H Ryu (Kor) 71 73, X Li (Chn) 71 73, T Detry (Bel) 71 73, S Han (USA) 74 70, M Kieffer (Ger) 71 73, O Fisher (Eng) 71 73, B Snyder (USA) 69 75, S Norris (RSA) 71 73, D Burmester (RSA) 71 73, W Ormsby (Aus) 69 75, A Connelly (Can) 71 73, W Lu (Tpe) 71 73, L Slattery (Eng) 73 71, Y Lin (am) (Chn) 68 76,
145 R Bland (Eng) 73 72, N Fung (Mas) 69 76, B Neil (Sco) 71 74, W Huang (Chn) 72 73, M Warren (Sco) 76 69, B Xiao (Chn) 72 73, L Zhang (Chn) 73 72, R Cho (Kor) 74 71, C Shinkwin (Eng) 71 74, A Bland (Aus) 71 74, R Wannasrichan (Tha) 72 73,
146 B Stone (RSA) 72 74, G Havret (Fra) 73 73, G Bourdy (Fra) 72 74, B Wiesberger (Aut) 72 74, W Wu (Chn) 71 75, Z Chen (Chn) 75 71, N Colsaerts (Bel) 74 72, J Veerman (USA) 68 78, S Chan (Tpe) 75 71, Z She (Chn) 73 73, Y Cao (Chn) 71 75,
147 R Paratore (Ita) 74 73, S Hend (Aus) 77 70, P Peterson (USA) 72 75, D Brooks (Eng) 72 75, C Pigem (Esp) 71 76, H Zhang (Chn) 74 73, E Van Rooyen (RSA) 72 75, H Tanihara (Jpn) 72 75, J Zhang (Chn) 72 75,
148 D Im (USA) 76 72, A Sandhu (Ind) 72 76, S Brazel (Aus) 70 78,
149 D Chen (Chn) 74 75, B Rumford (Aus) 72 77, Y Yang (Chn) 77 72, T Jaidee (Tha) 72 77, B Hebert (Fra) 75 74, D Kataoka (Jpn) 70 79,
150 C Chen (Chn) 76 74, S Chawrasia (Ind) 75 75, X Wang (Chn) 79 71, P Saksansin (Tha) 75 75, X Wang (Chn) 76 74,
151 W Liang (Chn) 75 76, X Chen (Chn) 75 76, D Gleeson (Aus) 75 76,
152 D Nisbet (Aus) 77 75,
153 S He (Chn) 79 74, H Chao (Chn) 72 81, S Fan (Chn) 78 75, Z He (Chn) 76 77, C Ma (Chn) 77 76, D Su (Chn) 79 74, T Wu (Chn) 76 77,
154 J O’Toole (USA) 72 82, J Singh (Ind) 77 77, L Herbert (Aus) 75 79, J Ye (Chn) 79 75,
155 X Yao (Chn) 75 80,
156 H Porteous (RSA) 79 77, Z Ouyang (Chn) 79 77,
157 Z Tong (Chn) 75 82,
158 D Wang (Chn) 79 79, G Zhou (Chn) 75 83, Z Liu (Chn) 76 82,
159 Z He (Chn) 74 85, P Chen (am) (Chn) 80 79,
161 G Chen (am) (Chn) 83 78,
** L Lien (Tpe) 79 WD, R Tang (Chn) 84 WD,
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