James Sugrue will go into the final round of the Clutch Pro Tour’s Tangier Championship four shots off the lead, but the Mallow man had to recover from a shaky start on day two to remain in with a chance of a first professional win.
An opening round of 65 left Sugrue in a six-way share of the lead after day one at England’s Heythrop Park, but starting on the 10th on day two, he bogeyed two of his first five holes to slip down into the chasing pack. Birdies on 16 and 18 got him back to level-par by the turn, and further birdied followed on one, five and seven to get him to -3 for the day before a disappointing bogey on the par-3 ninth dropped him to -8 overall and he goes into the final round tied for sixth.
Starting the day two behind Sugrue, John Ross Galbraith double-bogeyed the 10th – his opening hole – but that was his final slip up of the day and he carded four birdies thereafter to match Sugrue’s 69 and lie tied for 12th.
In fact, 69s were the order of the day for all four Irish to make the cut as both Paul McBride and Robert Brazill followed suit in the afternoon, with the former moving into a tie for 22nd at -4 and the latter climbing to T39 at -2, making the cut on the number.
Rory Williamson missed out by the minimum, while Marc Boucher and Scott Montgomery are also heading home.
England’s Jordan Wrisdale is the man to catch after back-to-back 65s were enough to secure a two-stroke lead and give him a chance of a wire-to-wire victory. Another pair of Englishmen – Finbar Kane and William Harrold – are his closest challengers at -10. In fact, only Sugrue, Galbraith and Korean Dongwon Kim from the leading 20 players don’t have a George’s Cross next to their names.
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