David Higgins shot a second-round one-under 71 to move to the fore of the Irish quartet taking on Legends Tour Final Qualifying Stage at Gloria Golf Club in Belek, Turkey.
With just five Tour cards up for grabs, Higgins’ -1 overall tally leaves him three shots shy of the all-important fifth place at the halfway mark, but he’s certainly in the mix, even if he knows he’ll likely need to go low in one of the final two rounds.
Starting on the 10th, the Waterville man reeled off eight pars before moving into red figures for the day and the tournament when he birdied the par-5 18th. Unfortunately, that would be his only birdie on the day, making nine successive pars on the front side to reach the clubhouse at one-under, moving up to 13th on the leaderboard.
Damian Mooney, who began the day best of the Irish at -1, was cruising along nicely and got to -2 overall with a birdie at seven, but he’d post two bogeys and two double-bogeys over the next six holes to plummet down the board and leave himself a mountain to climb. To his credit, he steadied the ship and birdied the last to get back to +3 overall, but, now seven back of fifth, he can’t really afford any additional mistakes over the closing 36 holes.
Gary Murphy is one further adrift at +4, though the K Club Head Pro made considerable strides up the board with a 71 that was six strokes better than his opening round score.
Keith Coveney’s race appears to be run after the Turkish National Team coach followed up his opening 73 with a four-over 76 on day two.
England’s Chris Gane continues to lead the way, backing up his first-round 66 with a 70 on day two, and he enjoys a two-stroke lead over fellow countryman David Shacklady and Indian Jyoti Randhawa, with Frenchman Lionel Alexandre one further adrift in solo fourth.
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