Ronan Mullarney will go into Saturday’s final round of the Alps Tour’s Regione Lazio Grand Final with it all to play for after a two-under-par round of 70 kept him inside the top 10.
The Galway man came into the season-ending event in fourth place in the Alps Tour Order of Merit with the leading five in the rankings gaining promotion, but only a marginal 400 points separating him from sixth-ranked Alvaro Hernandez Cabezuela, and a three-under-par opening round saw him tied for sixth.
Back-to-back birdies on the opening two holes was the perfect start, but he followed them with 16 straight pars, dropping two places to T8 and now trailing leader and Order of Merit number one Javier Barcos by seven.
But two of his closest challengers for the promotion places in #5 ranked Asier Aguirre Izcue and #7 ranked Javier Calles Roman share fifth on -7. The former shot rounds of 68 and 69, but the latter, having opened with a 75 that looked to have ended his hopes, responded with a course-record breaking 62.
The other immediate danger to Mullarney, sixth-ranked Cabezuela, lost ground with a two-over 74 that dropped him back to T25 on level-par.
Robert Moran made four bogeys and two birdies over his opening 15 holes but recovered to birdie two of the final three holes to return a level-par 72 and sit tied for 12th at -3, while Hugh Foley finds himself well down the field in a share of 38th at -5 after rounds of 75 and 74.
36-hole leader Barcos can sleep soundly knowing that he’s guaranteed promotion to the HotelPlanner Tour and is playing for the added bonus of signing off with a victory as the Spaniard takes a one-stroke lead over France’s Augustin Hole.
“I want to remain in the present, I don’t want to think about anything else other than my golf game and what I can control,” Barcos said. “I’ll begin on hole 1, trying to do what I’ve been doing these past few days, which has obviously worked well.”
Barcos also shared that he’s intentionally tuning out the leaderboard pressure.
“I didn’t look at the scoreboard the whole day, I only checked it on 18 after I finished. I plan to do the same tomorrow. Maybe on holes 16 or 17, if I feel the need to make more comfortable swings, I’ll check it. Otherwise, I’ll just keep hitting good shots and doing the best I can.”
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