Nine under on day two keeps Ireland in the Eisenhower hunt

New Zealand lead the way at the halfway stage of the Eisenhower Trophy on 20 under par, one shot clear of Ireland, who are level with Denmark and Thailand going into the penultimate round.

Images by Pat Cashman
 
Once more Robin Dawson fared best for the hosts, carding a five under 68 on the O’Meara Course with Conor Purcell shooting 69. John Murphy’s battling round of 70 was surplus to requirements on another fine day for the home players.
 
“To follow up yesterday’s score was fantastic,” said team captain John Carroll. “We’re well in the hunt so that’s all that matters at this stage.”
 
Lying second overnight on 10 under, Ireland maintained a strong pace near the front of the field and now find themselves just one behind at halfway. Despite their fine return for the round, Ireland could point to a number of missed opportunities and it was hard not to ponder what might have been.
 
“I could have picked up a lot more but in saying that five under is still a good score,” said Dawson, who has now gone 36 holes without making a bogey. “I would have taken that [68] on the first tee.”
 
A par-par start, which included a smart up and down at the second, suggested Dawson might struggle to match the heights of Wednesday’s 65 on the Montgomerie but he holed from 10 feet at the third to get the ball rolling again. A seven-footer at the fifth completed an early hat-trick of birdies and while he had to wait until 15 for his next gain, there were few complaints.
 
“Happy enough,” was Dawson’s overall assessment. “ My game was solid.”
 
His final birdie of the round came courtesy of a stunning approach on 17. A booming drive left him contemplating a 2-iron from 228 yards. The ball pierced through the wind, turning right to left on a beautiful arc towards the flag, and landed smoothly below the pin, eventually finishing six feet from the hole.
Murphy also birdied the final par-five to end his round three under but having got it to minus four after six, he wore the facial features of a frustrated challenger.
 
“I just got to eliminate the bad [holes] over the next couple of days,” said the 20-year-old redhead from Kinsale.
 
His hot start set the tone but three bogeys on the back nine halted his gallop. A second round of 70 gives him a total of six under, which seems modest only because Ireland have set such a high standard. With an eagle and 11 birdies against his name, Murphy’s game is brewing nicely.
 
Likewise, Conor Purcell is coming to the boil and the only blemish on his card was a bogey at 15 when, not for the first time in the round, a putt lipped out.
 
“Today was very solid,” Purcell reflected. “I had one little hiccup on 15. That was my only mistake and I think that was my only missed green.”
 
An opening birdie from three feet had Purcell in the red and he reached the turn three under with further gains at the 5th, from four feet, and the 6th, where he two-putted from 15 feet.
 
An exquisite wedge shot on 11 delighted the gallery, his approach from 116 yards pitching past the pin before spinning back to the hole, leaving a tap-in birdie. He pitched it close on 13 to set up another stress-free birdie but the course betrayed him on 14 – his birdie putt lipped, a scene that was repeated on 16 and 18.
 
“Going out today you could have it in your head that O’Meara should be the easier of the two courses and there should be more birdies,” said Purcell. “And when you start making a few pars when you think you should make birdies you can get a bit down but overall I think we did a good job of keeping the spirits up.”
 
And there was no need to feel down when they looked at the leaderboard. Ireland remained in second place and had closed the gap. New Zealand take a one-stroke lead into round three, replacing first round leaders Denmark, who were two clear at the end of day one.
 
The Danes now share second place with Ireland and Thailand, who were 13 under on the Montgomerie, the same mark as New Zealand.  Thailand’s Sadom Kaewkanjana is two clear in the individual standings on 14 with Robin Dawson tied second on minus 12.

The World Amateur Team Championships are being hosted by the ILGU and GUI with support from Sport Ireland.
 
Round Two Scores (Complete)
270 New Zealand (Ieremia 66, Mountcastle 76, Hillier 65)
271 Denmark (Axelsen 69, Hojgaard 70, Hojgaard 70)
271 Ireland (Murphy 70, Purcell 69, Dawson 68)
271 Thailand (Hamamoto 71, Kaewkanjana 65, Chothirunrungrueng 66)
272 Canada (Bernard 66, Rank 72, Savoie 67)
273 Spain (Pastor 75, Del Rey 64, Hidalgo 69)
273 United States of America (Morikawa 66, Suh 67, Hammer 71)
274 Italy (Manzoni 77, Mazzoli 64, Scalise 69)
274 Sweden (Widing 68, Gillberg 65, Nilehn 68)
275 Austria (Steinlechner 69, Regner 67, Lipold 69)
277 Germany (Hammer 67, Long 76, John 72)
278 Argentina (Schonbaum 72, Fernandez de Oliveira 69, Contini 68)
278 England (Petrozzi 68, Waite 70, Jordan 70)
279 Australia (Lee 68, Micheluzzi 74, Wools-Cobb 70)
279 Norway (Hovland 73, Reitan 70, Volden 68)
279 Republic of Korea (Choi 73, Jang 68, Oh 78)
279 Wales (Chamberlain 74, Hapgood 68, Williams 70)
280 Chile (Morgan Birke 71, Errazuriz 73, Gana 69)
280 Scotland (Lumsden 67, Scott 71, Walker 69)
280 Switzerland (Freiburghaus 71, Cohen 72, Ettlin 74)
281 India (Kaul 73, Bedi 72, John Thomas 72)
281 Japan (Kanaya 68, Nakajima WD, Imano 76)
282 Serbia (Cvetkovic 73, Dimitrijevic 68, Gudelj 67)
284 Colombia (Ramirez Velandia 71, Restrepo 78, Ardila 70)
284 Costa Rica (Gagne 67, Chaplet 68, Ortiz 73)
284 Czech Republic (Zuska 72, Hruby 72, Zach 70)
284 France (Gandon 73, Lacroix 72, Veyret 72)
284 Poland (Pakosch 77, Pedryc 68, Szmidt 74)
285 Belgium (Dumont de Chassart 71, De Bondt 73, de Wouters d’Oplinter 70)
285 Estonia (Hellat 70, Jegers 75, Turba 69)
286 Netherlands (Ji 70, Kraai 81, van Tilburg 72)
286 Peoples Republic of China (Chen 71, Liang 72, Zhang 74)
286 Portugal (Lopes 78, Girao 79, Lencart 70)
287 Dominican Republic (Valverde A 76, Pena 75, Guerra 71)
287 Venezuela (Garcia 69, Brauckmeyer 73, Prieto 82)
288 Peru (Zubiate 74, Freundt-Thurne 72, Barco 72)
288 Singapore (Ho 75, Lee 73, Foo 69)
289 Guatemala (Villavicencio Calderon 75, Castellanos Conde 73, Gurtner 70)
289 Zimbabwe (Allard 75, Amm 73, Krog 80)
290 Puerto Rico (Esteve 79, Alverio 72, Morales 73)
291 Iceland (Sveinbergsson 72, Juliusson 72, Petursson 73)
291 Mexico (Pereda 74, Terrazas 73, Ortiz Becerra 73)
292 Hong Kong, China (Cheung 71, D’Souza 76, Ng 75)
292 Morocco (Id Omar 68, Raouzi 83, Dahmane 76)
294 Saudi Arabia (Almulla 72, Alsakha 78, Attieh 72)
294 South Africa (Saulez 75, Nienaber 76, Mitchell WD)
295 Finland (Mahonen 76, Honkala 75, Valimaki 73)
296 Slovakia (Brezovsky 78, Mach 70, Lucansky 78)
297 Taipei, Chinese (Wang 70, Lai 75, Ho 77)
299 Bermuda (Dillas 75, Ming 80, Campbell 81)
299 Brazil (Ishii 77, Park 75, Machado 76)
299 Turkey (Esmer 75, Yamac 75, Acikalin 75)
299 Uruguay (Reyes 76, Teuten 76, Alvarez 75)
300 Croatia (Buerk 76, Stepinac 78, Vucemil 79)
302 Luxembourg (Weis 76, Weis 76, Winandy 82)
303 Slovenia (Trnovec 76, Potocar 80, Burkelca 75)
304 Malta (Borg 75, Critien 78, Micallef 81)
304 Qatar (Al Kaabi 79, Al Kuwari 77, Al Shahrani 81)
307 Cayman Islands (Hastings 76, Wight 75, Jarvis 75)
307 Guam (Camacho 74, Manalo 78, Poe 79)
308 Panama (Ducruet 75, Cargiulo 79, Ordonez 77)
308 United Arab Emirates (Al Jasmi 75, Skaik 77, Thabet 83)
310 Liechtenstein (Schredt 90, Schreiber 74, Schredt 83)
310 Republic of Moldova (Coica 77, Volostnykh 79, Podgainii 100)
315 Bulgaria (Marinov 76, Savov 89, Staykov 81)
327 Lithuania (Vaicius WD, Momkus 90, Markevicius 76)
329 Ghana (Angel 82, Dogbe 83, Kusi-Boateng 91)
329 Nigeria (Thompson 83, Inalegwu 85, Thompson 90)
337 Haiti (Brandt 93, Saint-Fort 99, Mehu 77)
347 Iraq (Al-Hashimi 103, Barnouti 92, Radee 80)
371 Gabon (Illien 84, Perez Ayo 94)
373 Armenia (Balyan 104, Karakhanyan 94, Saghatelyan 122)
Individual
O=O’Meara Course
M=Montgomerie Course
131 S Kaewkanjana (THA), 66O, 65M:
133 R Dawson (IRL), 65M, 68O: J Axelsen (DEN), 64M, 69O:
134 T Kanaya (JPN), 66M, 68O: A Del Rey (ESP), 70O, 64M: D Hillier (NZL), 69O, 65M:
135 O Gillberg (SWE), 70O, 65M:
136 J Suh (USA), 69M, 67O: A John (GER), 69M, 67O: R John Thomas (IND), 64O, 72M: D Ieremia (NZL), 70O, 66M:
137 P Lencart (POR), 67M, 70O: B Gudelj (SRB), 70M, 67O: N Regner (AUT), 70M, 67O: L Scalise (ITA), 68M, 69O: M Fernandez de Oliveira (ARG), 68O, 69M: J Garcia (VEN), 68O, 69M: P Cohen (SUI), 65O, 72M:
138 C Purcell (IRL), 69M, 69O: C Morikawa (USA), 72M, 66O: R Hojgaard (DEN), 68M, 70O: J Savoie (CAN), 71M, 67O: L Lipold (AUT), 69M, 69O: R Lumsden (SCO), 71M, 67O: G Petrozzi (ENG), 70O, 68M:
139 J Murphy (IRL), 69M, 70O: G Foo (SGP), 70M, 69O: A Pedryc (POL), 71M, 68O: T Widing (SWE), 71O, 68M: S Zach (CZE), 69O, 70M:
140 L Gagne (CRC), 73M, 67O: M Lee (AUS), 72M, 68O: H Bernard (CAN), 74M, 66O: G Rank (CAN), 68M, 72O: J Ji (NED), 70O, 70M: M Waite (ENG), 70O, 70M: J Volden (NOR), 72O, 68M: J Hapgood (WAL), 72O, 68M:
141 I Ramirez Velandia (COL), 70M, 71O: S Jang (KOR), 73M, 68O: J Guerra (DOM), 70M, 71O: N Hojgaard (DEN), 71M, 70O: D Gurtner (GUA), 71M, 70O: A Errazuriz (CHI), 68M, 73O: D Amm (ZIM), 68O, 73M: M Contini (ARG), 73O, 68M: K Reitan (NOR), 71O, 70M: W Chothirunrungrueng (THA), 75O, 66M:
142 A Dumont de Chassart (BEL), 71M, 71O: J Turba (EST), 73M, 69O: S Wools-Cobb (AUS), 72M, 70O: C Hammer (USA), 71M, 71O: A Id Omar (MAR), 74M, 68O: M Steinlechner (AUT), 73M, 69O: E Walker (SCO), 73M, 69O: L Barco (PER), 70M, 72O: F Lacroix (FRA), 70M, 72O: V Veyret (FRA), 70M, 72O: F Nilehn (SWE), 74O, 68M: A Hidalgo (ESP), 73O, 69M:
143 C Ardila (COL), 73M, 70O: J de Wouters d’Oplinter (BEL), 73M, 70O: D Micheluzzi (AUS), 69M, 74O: P Mach (SVK), 73M, 70O: M Alverio (PUR), 71M, 72O: S Mazzoli (ITA), 79M, 64O: G Morgan Birke (CHI), 72M, 71O: M Jordan (ENG), 73O, 70M: V Hovland (NOR), 70O, 73M: B Chamberlain (WAL), 69O, 74M: T Williams (WAL), 73O, 70M: J Freiburghaus (SUI), 72O, 71M:
144 H Choi (KOR), 71M, 73O: M Hammer (GER), 77M, 67O: S Scott (SCO), 73M, 71O: E Liang (CHN), 72O, 72M:
145 A Juliusson (ISL), 73M, 72O: S Oh (KOR), 67M, 78O: P Chaplet (CRC), 77M, 68O: C Hellat (EST), 75M, 70O: O Almulla (KSA), 73M, 72O: A Ortiz Becerra (MEX), 72M, 73O: M Saulez (RSA), 70M, 75O: H Zhang (CHN), 71O, 74M: K Hamamoto (THA), 74O, 71M: V Pastor (ESP), 70O, 75M: P Hruby (CZE), 73O, 72M:
146 G Sveinbergsson (ISL), 74M, 72O: R Pena (DOM), 71M, 75O: M Dimitrijevic (SRB), 78M, 68O: P Freundt-Thurne (PER), 74M, 72O: W Wang (TPE), 76M, 70O: K Kaul (IND), 73O, 73M: A Bedi (IND), 74O, 72M: J Zuska (CZE), 74O, 72M: M Cheung (HKG), 75O, 71M:
147 A De Bondt (BEL), 74M, 73O: B Petursson (ISL), 74M, 73O: R Pereda (MEX), 73M, 74O: M Honkala (FIN), 72M, 75O: D Imano (JPN), 71M, 76O: N van Tilburg (NED), 75O, 72M: L Ettlin (SUI), 73O, 74M: J Dillas (BER), 72O, 75M:
148 K Jegers (EST), 73M, 75O: 148 P Pakosch (POL), 71M, 77O: J Gandon (FRA), 75M, 73O: L Park (BRA), 73O, 75M: J Allard (ZIM), 73O, 75M: A Schonbaum (ARG), 76O, 72M: Y Chen (CHN), 77O, 71M: T Ng (HKG), 73O, 75M: K Al Jasmi (UAE), 73O, 75M:
149 R Camacho (GUM), 75M, 74O: K Attieh (KSA), 77M, 72O: S Valimaki (FIN), 76M, 73O: W Nienaber (RSA), 73M, 76O: S Zubiate (PER), 75M, 74O: M Reyes (URU), 73M, 76O: T Yamac (TUR), 74M, 75O: T Gana (CHI), 80M, 69O: L D’Souza (HKG), 73O, 76M: K Mountcastle (NZL), 73O, 76M: L Buerk (CRO), 73O, 76M:
150 A Ortiz (CRC), 76M, 74O: V Lopes (POR), 72M, 78O: A Girao (POR), 71M, 79O: H Long (GER), 74M, 76O: D Cvetkovic (SRB), 77M, 73O: A Villavicencio Calderon (GUA), 75M, 75O: D Lee (SGP), 77M, 73O: G Manzoni (ITA), 73M, 77O: F Alvarez (URU), 75M, 75O: L Acikalin (TUR), 75M, 75O: K Brauckmeyer (VEN), 77O, 73M: D Volostnykh (MDA), 71O, 79M: E Schreiber (LIE), 76O, 74M:
151 E Restrepo (COL), 73M, 78O: V Mahonen (FIN), 75M, 76O: S Dahmane (MAR), 75M, 76O: P Castellanos Conde (GUA), 78M, 73O: J Ho (SGP), 76M, 75O: N Teuten (URU), 75M, 76O: H Machado (BRA), 75O, 76M: C Weis (LUX), 75O, 76M: G Weis (LUX), 75O, 76M: S Al Kaabi (QAT), 72O, 79M:
152 E Morales (PUR), 79M, 73O: J Szmidt (POL), 78M, 74O: C Lai (TPE), 77M, 75O: K Burkelca (SLO), 77O, 75M: I Vucemil (CRO), 73O, 79M:
153 E Valverde A (DOM), 77M, 76O: M Brezovsky (SVK), 75M, 78O: J Esteve (PUR), 74M, 79O: H Esmer (TUR), 78M, 75O: Y Ho (TPE), 76M, 77O: R Critien (MLT), 75O, 78M: W Campbell (BER), 72O, 81M: G Markevicius (LTU), 77O, 76M:
154 A Terrazas (MEX), 81M, 73O: 154 D Ishii (BRA), 77O, 77M: M Trnovec (SLO), 78O, 76M: S Krog (ZIM), 74O, 80M: J Hastings (CAY), 78O, 76M: A Jarvis (CAY), 79O, 75M: J Ducruet (PAN), 79O, 75M: M Ordonez (PAN), 77O, 77M: M Stepinac (CRO), 76O, 78M:
155 A Alsakha (KSA), 77M, 78O: S Kraai (NED), 74O, 81M: V Potocar (SLO), 75O, 80M:
156 A Borg (MLT), 81O, 75M: J Mehu (HAI), 79O, 77M:
157 O Raouzi (MAR), 74M, 83O: J Micallef (MLT), 76O, 81M: P Wight (CAY), 82O, 75M: V Marinov (BUL), 81O, 76M: M Ming (BER), 77O, 80M: A Al Shahrani (QAT), 76O, 81M:
158 B Lucansky (SVK), 80M, 78O: R Staykov (BUL), 77O, 81M: D Winandy (LUX), 76O, 82M:
159 D Poe (GUM), 80M, 79O:
160 R Manalo (GUM), 82M, 78O: A Coica (MDA), 83O, 77M: A Skaik (UAE), 83O, 77M: F Schredt (LIE), 77O, 83M:
162 L Cargiulo (PAN), 83O, 79M:
163 J Al Kuwari (QAT), 86O, 77M:
164 E Prieto (VEN), 82O, 82M: A Angel (GHA), 82O, 82M:
165 A Radee (IRQ), 85O, 80M: Y Dogbe (GHA), 82O, 83M:
166 G Inalegwu (NGR), 81O, 85M:
168 A Illien (GAB), 84O, 84M: O Thompson (NGR), 85O, 83M:
169 S Schredt (LIE), 79O, 90M:
170 S Thabet (UAE), 87O, 83M: J Thompson (NGR), 80O, 90M:
171 D Savov (BUL), 82O, 89M:
176 D Momkus (LTU), 86O, 90M:
181 K Kusi-Boateng (GHA), 90O, 91M:
185 A Podgainii (MDA), 85O, 100M: L Barnouti (IRQ), 93O, 92M: L Karakhanyan (ARM), 91O, 94M:
187 R Saint-Fort (HAI), 88O, 99M:
188 M Brandt (HAI), 95O, 93M: R Balyan (ARM), 84O, 104M:
193 H Al-Hashimi (IRQ), 90O, 103M:
203 D Perez Ayo (GAB), 109O, 94M:
225 A Saghatelyan (ARM), 103O, 122M:
WD M Mitchell (RSA), 78M, WDO: K Nakajima (JPN), WDM, WDO: M Vaicius (LTU), 84O, WDM;