Peter Lawrie remains 100% for rounds under par on his competitive return to the Legends Tour after a one-under 71 at the Costa Navarino Legends Tour Trophy on Greece’s western coast.
Making his first tour start in almost eight years, the 2008 Spanish Open winner found the going a little tougher as the tournament moved from the Bay Course to the significantly harder Olympic Academy Course at the plush Grecian resort, but the same can be said for most of the field as the Jose Maria Olazabal designed layout can be an absolute beast when the wind blows.
And after back-to-back bogeys on holes two and three, Lawrie could’ve been forgiven for letting the entire round slide with such little recent experience with a scorecard in hand. But to his credit, he battled back and birdies at six and eight got him back to all-square with the course, before another bogey at nine saw him make the turn at +1.
He’d make hay in the early stages of the back nine, however, and a birdie on 11 was followed by back-to-back red numbers on 13 and 14 before a closing bogey saw him slip back to -1 on the day and -4 overall, good for a tie for 20th going into the final round.
Gary Murphy was left to rue a costly two-hole stretch on day one that saw him ship five strokes and shoot +1, but the move to the tougher track seemed to work out well and he kept the big numbers off the card on day two.
He still made four bogeys, but three birdies helped offset these and an eagle-three at the 11th helped him to a one-under 71, matching his compatriot Lawrie and seeing him climb to tied 41st.
After two players shot rounds of 60 on day one for 11-under totals, the lead hasn’t stretched much beyond and its Swede Mikael Lundberg who now leads the way after following his 61 with a 69 to get to -13.
He leads one of the 60 men in Robert Coles by a single stroke, with American Clark Dennis and France’s Lionel Alexandre one further adrift at -11.
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