Dermot McElroy is seven shots off the pace at the halfway mark of the Abu Dhabi Challenge at Al Ain Equestrian.
McElroy carded a one-under-par round of 69 despite a late double bogey to climb to four-under and into 22nd place.
The Ballymena man bookended his opening nine with bogeys but added a birdie on the par-5 7th. He clicked into gear with a brace of birdies on the 10th and 11th before another brace on 14 and 15.
This got the 31-year-old into the fringes of contention before a double bogey on the par-4 16th undid some of his good work.
Robin Sciot-Siegrist holds a one shot lead after signing for a bogey free five under par round of 65.
Opening his second round with six consecutive pars, Frenchman Sciot-Siegrist picked up three shots around the turn before adding further birdies on the 14th and 16th holes to move to 11 under for the tournament.
The 30-year-old, who sits 64th in the HotelPlanner Tour’s Road to Mallorca Rankings, is one clear of his closest rival in Spaniard Sebastian Garcia and is ready to embrace the leaderboard pressure heading into the weekend.
“I am just going to keep doing what I am doing and deal with the pressure,” he said.
“There’s still two more days and a lot of golf to come. We will see what happens at the end. I’ve been playing well. I made a lot of putts yesterday; it was a great round today.”
Having dealt with tough conditions at Al Ain Equestrian, Shooting & Golf Club, Sciot-Siegrist was delighted to finish the day with a clean scorecard.
“I have to say, with the conditions, I am very happy with no bogeys today,” he added.
“The pins are hard, the greens are getting firmer. A couple of shots were quite difficult with the wind blowing and the pins were difficult to get to.”
First round pacesetter Garcia sits one shot back on ten under par after making three consecutive birdies to close out his round. Meanwhile Garrick Porteous, the 2024 Abu Dhabi Challenge winner, is nine under par after carding a second round 64.
American Davis Bryant, Italian Renato Paratore, Portuguese Pedro Figueiredo, Slovakian Tadeas Tetak, Frenchman Felix Mory and Spaniard Albert Boneta all sit at eight under.
Max Kennedy and Jonathan Caldwell both made the cut on two-under and one-under respectively.
The third round of the Abu Dhabi Challenge starts at 07:30am, with Sciot-Siegrist teeing it up alongside Porteous and Garcia at 09:30am.
Scoring HERE
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