Gavin Moynihan will be left to wonder what happened after letting a comfortable position on the leaderboard slip from his grasp at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in Doha.
Flying the flag for Ireland solo this week, the Mount Juliet touring professional had made the turn in 32 after eagling the 18th, his ninth, to sit at five-under par for the tournament and seemingly homing in on the leaders.
A par at the par-5 first would have proved nothing more than a tad frustrating before a bogey at the second, his 11th sent his scoring into free-fall out of nowhere.
Five inward bogeys saw him home in 41, the worst part being, his plus-one 73 and even par total saw the Dubliner miss out on the weekend action by a single stroke.
It will be a tough one to swallow for Moynihan, whose game looked to deserve more than an MC on the record this week, but he’s shown enough already in his play this season to guarantee he’ll bounce back stronger for the result.
At the other end of affairs, South Africans George Coetzee and Justin Harding and France’s Mike Lorenzo-Vera share the halfway lead as they each fired four-under par rounds of 68 at Doha Golf Club.
The trio started their days one shot behind overnight leaders Adri Arnaus and Justin Walters but took advantage of calmer conditions in Qatar after high winds on Thursday.
Lorenzo-Vera, out in the first group this morning, birdied the tenth hole, his first, and then made another gain before the turn. A bogey on the first hole was followed by two birdies on the third and fourth holes, before he recorded his fifth birdie of the day on the eighth hole to set the target of eight-under par.
“It was different to yesterday,” said the Frenchman. “I had a lack of energy in the middle of the round and dropped two shots – a three putt from eight metres for eagle, and a really bad hole number one with a three wood nowhere off the tee and an even worse layup. I was really happy with how I handled it and came into the round after that.
“It was nice at the beginning. We were downwind on ten, so had a short second shot into the green and the greens were really good. Very grainy, but still very fair. It was just a bit harder in the middle of the round because it was a really early wake up. I lost a bit of focus, but that was the difference compared to yesterday.”
Harding, who finished third on the Asian Tour Order of Merit in 2018, made the turn level par but then carded three consecutive birdies from the tenth to 12th holes and rolled in his fifth birdie of the day on the 17th hole to reach eight under. His compatriot Coetzee rounded out the top three after his bogey free effort in the afternoon.
Arnaus, Masahiro Kawamura, Oliver Wilson and Erik van Rooyen share fourth place on seven under par. Eight golfers share eighth place one stroke further back, including Australia’s Deyen Lawson, who made his second hole-in-one of the season on the par three 17th hole – his first of the year came at the Alfred Dunhill Championship in December, also with an eight iron.
Full Scoring HERE
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