Mark Power and Gary Hurley are both through to the weekend at the HotelPlanner Tour’s Open de Portugal after another day of low scoring at PGA Aroeira.
Kilkenny man Power was among the early starters on day two and carded five birdies in a bogey-free 66 to move to -8 and climb inside the top 25.
Hurley, playing in the afternoon, also went bogey-free, but after a two-under opening round, he could only find one birdie over his first 16 holes in round two and at -3, he was two shots outside the provisional cut mark.
A birdie-birdie finish was needed on the two par-4s remaining, and that’s exactly what he produced to earn a weekend tee time.
Liam Nolan shot a level-par 71 to miss the cut by two, while Max Kennedy and Conor Purcell also missed out.
Low scores were the order of the day, however, and Marc Warren carded a bogey-free eight-under-par round of 63 to top the leaderboard.
The Scotsman made eight birdies on Friday to move one-stroke clear of first round leader Jannik de Bruyn and Japan’s Tatsunori Shogenji.
Warren was happy he could take advantage of the perfect scoring conditions presented to him in the morning wave.
“A good day for myself,” he said. “It was a great start this morning, conditions were perfect, so I was delighted to get out and take advantage of that.
“The conditions were so good that it’s important to get off to a good start. I made birdie at the first and missed a few chances after that, but my patience was really good and obviously a good reward in the end.
“You’ve got to let the birdies come to you and not force it too much. I felt like I did a really good job at that today.”
Earlier this year, Warren celebrated joining the DP World Tour’s ‘500 club’, making his 500th appearance on Golf’s Global Tour at the Austrian Alpine Open and becoming one of just 51 players to reach the landmark.
The Glasgow resident says returning once again to the Tour where he has won four times has been his main motivation this season.
“I’m trying to get back out there. I felt as if the main reason I lost my card a couple of years ago was through injury, so I feel as if I’ve still got a bit to offer, still got a little bit of game left in me.
“Like I said, it’s about that word again patience, it’s trying to let the results happen rather than trying to force them, and a massive goal is getting back out there on the DP World Tour.
“I’ll be hoping for more of the same tomorrow, 14 under for two rounds means your game is in pretty good shape. I’ll try and not overthink it or anything and have a pretty easy afternoon, and get ready to go again at the weekend.”
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