Alex Maguire is hoping to follow in Paul McBride and John Murphy’s footsteps and become the third Irish winner on the Clutch Pro Tour this season.
The Mornington native opened with a three-under 69 at the Nicklaus Course at St Mellion Golf Resort in Cornwall, and backed that up with another on day two to move to the top of the leaderboard.
He began the day one behind a pair of Englishmen and birdied three of his opening seven holes to hit the front, before closing out the front nine with back-to-back bogeys. He got those shots back with birdies on the par-4 10th and 15th holes as he went bogey-free on the back nine and posted six-under with the afternoon wave yet to come.
But nobody could get on level terms with him, and he holds a one-stroke lead over Joe Long and Oliver Sullivan, the former shooting 70 and the latter 68.
The round of the day at the business end of the leaderboard came from Paul McBride, however. The Island man had opened with a 74 to lie on two over and dangerously close to the provisional cut mark after day one, but he left cutline fears behind him with a blistering 66 that included seven birdies to storm into contention and go into the final round two behind his fellow countryman.
McBride’s victory at the Ashburnham Classic in Wales in the second event of the campaign saw him come from five behind on the final day, so he’ll be quietly confident that he can make up the ground required and put himself within one victory of a battlefield [automatic] promotion to the HotelPlanner Tour.
Starting on the 10th, he birdied three of his opening nine, then added three in a row to start the front before a dropped shot on six and a final birdie on the par-3 eighth.
Robert Brazill sits in solo ninth place at two-under after a second-round level-par 72 while Marc Boucher’s 69 lifted him into a share of 15th.
Tyler Hogarty (+1) and Noel Murray (+3) were the only other Irishmen to make the cut, with John Murphy, Tom Dowdall, Rory Williamson, Daniel Mulligan and Luke O’Neill all missing out.
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