Jonathan Caldwell and Cormac Sharvin will both have the weekend off after they missed the cut at the Dutch Open in Bernardus Golf, Croimvort.
Caldwell was in a relatively good position after an opening 71, just six off the early pace set by local hero Joost Luiten but a chastening six-over 78 sent him tumbling down the leaderboard and below the cut line by a distance on five-over.
The Clandeboye native carded three double-bogeys which proved extremely costly.
The 37-year-old actually got off to the ideal start with a birdie on the tenth as he played the course from back to front. After three successive pars disaster struck as he dropped three shots in two holes on the 14th and 15th with a double-bogey six on the latter sending him below the cut.
Caldwell’s week was all but over when he opened his back nine with a brace of double-bogey sixes to fall to plus five and that’s where he finished.
Ardglass native Sharvin shot a five-over 77 to miss the cut on eight-over and it was another colourful card.
The 29-year-old carded three birdies and an eagle but once again shot himself in the foot with a catalogue of errors and big numbers.
Sharvin carded two double bogeys and a triple as well as three further dropped shots in his round.
Having doubled his second hole, Sharvin was two-under for his round after three birdies, a bogey and an eagle on the par-5 12th as he moved to within two of the cut.
However, Sharvin doubled the 13th and dropped shots on 14 and 15 before a triple-bogey 8 on the 18th saw him home in 40.
Ricardo Gouveia will take a one-shot lead into the weekend after a six-under 66 gave him the outright lead on ten-under-par.
A closing birdie edged the Portuguese ahead of China’s Haotong Li who shot a stunning 63 to hold the lead on nine-under for most of the day.
Gouveia is chasing a maiden DP World Tour victory and carded two birdies in his last three holes to leapfrog Li.
Two-time DP World Tour winner Li skipped to the turn in just 29 strokes during his superb second round and he is in solo second place while there are some star names lurking.
The Chinese star credited a hot putter for his score and is hoping he can keep it going as he chases a first win since 2018.
“I had a hot start, my putting was very hot today, I held a lot of long putts,” said Li who dropped seven shots on day one but had only one blemish on Friday.
“Yesterday I felt I played better off the tee than today but this course if you are off a little it’s easy to have a bogey. Today every ball was safer so I created a lot of birdie chances from there. I felt my swing and ball flight didn’t change much and that gave me a lot of confidence and belief.
“I need to be myself and stay calm over the weekend and hopefully shoot another couple of rounds like this,” he added.
Matt Wallace (-8), Victor Perez and Guido Migliozzi (both -7) are very much in contention heading into the final 36 holes while all is not lost for overnight leader Luiten who is four-under after a three-over 75.
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