Gary Murphy survived a front-nine wobble and came back to shoot a two-under round of 70 on day two of the Legends Tour’s Sergio Melpignano Senior Italian Open at San Domenico Golf Club.
With just two regular events remaining on the 2024 schedule following the conclusion of the Senior Italian Open, Murphy lies 62nd in the Legends Tour Rankings and needs to push his way into the top 48 if he’s to guarantee his place in the season ending MCB Tour Championship in Mauritius in just over a month’s time.
Having opened with a three-under 69, Murphy started brightly on day two and birdied the second hole to move to -4. But a bogey on the third was followed by a double bogey on the fifth and it looked as though the wheels could be coming off. But his response was that of a seasoned pro, and back-to-back birdies on six and seven was just what the doctor ordered and he made the turn at level-par on the day.
He’d still lost ground, however, so another pair of back-to-back birdies on 10 and 11 – the first on a par-5, the second on a par-3 – took him to -5 for the tournament, and he closed out the day with seven successive pars and lies tied for 16th but just two shots off seventh place.
The tournament winner looks as though it’s going to come from one of Bradley Dredge or Thomas Gogele who sit on -13 and -14 respectively.
Welshman Dredge traded a birdie and a bogey early, but went on a five-birdie run either side of the turn to card a five-under 67, while his German counterpart with whom he was playing went bogey-free, making three birdies on each side to take a slender advantage into the final 18 holes.
Dredge is four clear of England’s Simon Griffiths in third, with Italian duo Emanuele Canonica and Allesandro Tadini and Swede Joakim Haeggman one further back at -8.
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