Tied for the lead after day one, Paul McBride knew that the wind was set to pick up in the afternoon on day two of the Alps Tour event at Roquetas de Mar on the southeastern Spanish coast, and that it would be a case of holding firm.
Four birdies to two bogeys on the opening eight holes was an ideal start, but it all started going wrong from there. A bogey at nine saw him turn at -1, then three more on the spin from 12th saw him go tumbling down the leaderboard and a final bogey at 17 dropped him to -2 overall and would eventually settle in 17th place going into the final round.
One shot further back is Robert Moran who played in the early wave and, after a disappointing two-over effort on day one, looked destined for the day off tomorrow when he made two early bogeys in round two and made the turn at +4 for the tournament.
With nothing to lose, he caught fire on the front nine, reeling off back-to-back birdies on one and two, and then repeating the feat on four and five, and signed off with a final birdie on the ninth to move to -1 overall and earn a final round tee time in the process.
Marc Boucher rounds out the Irish interest in the final round after the Carton House man put back-to-back rounds of level-par together to make the cut on the number.
There was no joy for Michael Young, James Sugrue or Brandon St. John, all of whom found themselves the wrong side of the mark.
American Brandon Kewalramani has opened up a three-stroke advantage at the head of affairs after a five-under 65 to reach -9, with two Spaniards, a Frenchman and an Italian lying joint second.
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