By Sean Holland, in Holland.
Day two of the KLM Open brought along the opportunity for our two Irish representatives to make it to the weekend’s action.
Tom McKibbin had a very solid showing, finishing his day on one-under par with an even-par second round 72 that will see him safely through to the weekend.
“It was a little bit stressful but overall I felt the round went well,” McKibbin reflected, his one-under tally just inside the top-50 at the time of writing.
“I hit a lot of good iron shots and tee shots but the putts didn’t drop. I felt the greens were challenging to read today which made it quite tough because the last few holes coming in are very challenging.
“Still though I feel quite good after managing to hang in there and shoot a nice round of level par.”
Asking Tom what he thought of the course, he liked the open tee shots but with the dry weather here in Holland, he felt the approach shots were the most challenging aspect.
“Yeah the course was good and was quite generous enough off the tee, the fairways were quite wide,” he said.
“The double fairways do help a lot in that regard. The greens were so firm, I haven’t played on greens that firm in quite a long time. Some of the run-offs were so severe that you needed to be on form hitting good iron shots.
“It was a challenge trying to pinpoint how far short of the flag you’d have to hit the iron shots so that was quite difficult.”
The Hollywood native is feeling positive heading into the weekend and he’s hoping his consistent style will get him up the leaderboard.
“Same sort of stuff, seeing how well I can make my way up the leaderboard. Do a wee bit of work this afternoon and see how things go over the next couple of days.”
Meanwhile, Cork’s John Murphy had a difficult day at the office, carding a three-over par 75 which will see him miss out on weekend action at three-over par.
Murphy’s round started well as he sat on one under playing the par five twelfth. Unfortunately, this is where things started to unravel.
Just like Thursday, it was a three-hole stretch that undid all the good work up to then. A wayward second shot on twelve left him scrambling for par, adding in a three-putt on thirteen and a double bogey on fourteen, and that signalled the end of the Kinsale native’s hopes of making a second successive cut.
John to his credit kept it positive after his round: “I was obviously disappointed with the result but I’m trying to stay in the right frame of mind. Feel as though I’m streaks ahead of where I have been in previous months and think that patience is very important right now.”
Murphy’s already looking forward to next week in Hamburg and keeping that positive mindset intact.
“I’m going to get there Monday and put in three really good days of prep. I like the direction that Shane and I are heading and the practices that we’re putting in place. I’m not going to put too much pressure on myself but I’m excited to continue playing.”
Full scoring HERE
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