Stuart Grehan gave his hopes of maximizing his playing schedule on the HotelPlanner.com PGA EuroPro Tour a huge boost as he moved into a tie for 2nd at Qualifying School Final Stage at Frilford Heath.
The Tullamore professional has been in a rich vein of form of late and continued to make the game look easy as he fired a five-under par 67 to coast through to tomorrow’s final round.
Playing the easier Blue Course, Grehan cut out the mistakes today in posting six birdies and just the one dropped shot and now sits just two shots behind leading Welshman, Jack Davidson on six-under-par.
He moved five shots clear of next best Irishman, Chris Selfridge, who returned an even par 72 to remain at two-under-par. The Moyola Park professional had a mixed bag consisting of three birdies and as many dropped shots and now sits in a tie for 13th after day two in Oxfordshire.
Mount Juliet’s Luke Donnelly had a fantastic day and moved into a share of 13th alongside Selfridge after a four-under-par 68.
Not to be outdone, Knock’s Colin Fairweather fired a 68 of his own to sit one shot further back in a tie for 24th on one-under-par.
North West’s Brian McElhinney was another Irishman taking full advantage of the scoring conditions offered by the Blue Course as he got it back to level par after a two-under-par 70 on his card today.
With the top-80 making the cut for tomorrow’s final round, that meant the end of the road for a number of our hopefuls including John-Ross Galbraith, Stephen McCarthy, Jack Hume and Kevin Phelan.
However, for the leading 80 players and ties, they now go on to play a concluding 18-holes on the Blue Course. They are competing to earn the highest possible category on the 2018 HotelPlanner.com PGA EuroPro Tour.
All those progressing to Final Stage have earned at least a category 14, with golfers making the Final Stage cut earning a minimum category 10 and the top-30 earning category 3.
For Ireland’s remaining hopefuls, the Masters coverage can wait.
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