Conor Purcell and Conor O’Rourke enter the weekend as the leading Irish scorers on two-under-par in the Dormy Open at Askersunds Golfklubb in Åmmeberg, with Spaniard Ivan Cantero Gutierrez holding the lead outright on seven-under-par.
Cantero Gutierrez holds a one-shot lead over Sweden’s Adam Blomme and Austria’s Nikalas Regner, with the pair finishing in joint second ahead of a glut of players a further shot back in third.
Conor Purcell began his round with a relatively uneventful front nine as he played his opening seven holes to the course average. A birdie on the eighth followed by another par capped off a positive opening nine holes for the 26-year-old.
The back nine is where Purcell’s round really took off with consecutive birdies on the 10th, 11th and 12th which left him four-under for the day as he headed for the remaining six holes.
Inconsistency would scupper his chances of finishing the day closer to the leading group as bogeys on the 13thand 14th ate into his impressive Round 2 score. A birdie-bogey finish completed a solid day of play for one of the leading Irishmen.
Conor O’Rourke also suffered from inconsistency in his second round of play in Sweden, but yesterday’s lowest Irish scorer battled well on his back nine to mend some of the damage caused by a slow start.
Granted O’Rourke did par his first three holes starting on the 10th but a double bogey on the 13th and consecutive black marks on the 15th and 16th compounded the 32-year-old’s frustrations as he entered the back nine on one-under-par after starting the day on -5.
O’Rourke’s resiliency was displayed on the first hole as he began his back nine with a birdie helping to make his score more palatable to the Irishman.
Three-under-par would be as low as O’Rourke would get as a birdie on the fourth was erased by another birdie on the fifth. Pars on his remaining four holes gave him a share for 26th but he would be forgiven for feeling disappointed by not building on his strong opening round.
Purcell and O’Rourke made it safely through, but with the cutline falling at level par, Daniel Mulligan, Stuart Grehan, Dermot McElroy and Paul McBride all finishing the wrong side of the mark.
Daniel Mulligan played another solid round of golf in his second round but fell victim to another double bogey which tipped his score back over par, finishing on two-over for the day.
Stuart Grehan started and finished his day with bogeys and a double bogey-bogey run on the sixth and seventh gave the Irishman mountain to climb on the back nine. Three birdies on the back nine weren’t enough for the 30-year-old to make the weekend.
Paul McBride missed the cut after another bogey-laden round, a disappointing outcome from McBride who finished so strongly in the previous Challenge Tour event last week.
Dermot McElroy gave himself a chance with two back-nine birdies, but needing another at the last, his aggressive approach led to a double-bogey six instead and he’ll have the weekend off as well.
FULL SCORING
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