PADRAIG HARRINGTON MADE some headway on his opening round 68 at the KLM Open this afternoon, shooting a second consecutive round under par in the Netherlands.
The Dubliner managed two birdies and a solitary bogey to finish his round with a one under par 70 that leaves him nine shots adrift of clubhouse leader, Ashun Wu.
The Chinese golfer followed up yesterday’s scintillating 64 with another terrific round of 66 – which included his first two bogeys of the tournament. A total of 12 birdies in the opening two days has left him three shots clear of England’s Jonathan Thomson and alone atop of the leaderboard.
For Harrington, he started his day with a bogey on the third hole before picking up a shot on the eighth. A consistent performance along the back nine saw him card six consecutive pars before picking up a second birdie on the 16th and closing out his round with back-to-back pars.
The three time Major winner is hoping to make it consecutive top 10 finishes following his runner-up result at the Czech Masters.
Harrington sits T22 heading into the weekend, just one stroke outside a place in the top 10.
Ireland’s only other competitor in the field was Greystones golfer Paul Dunne, who missed the cut for a third successive tournament on Friday morning.
After an opening day 70, the 25-year-old carded a one-over-par 72 to bring him back to level par for the tournament and one shot outside of the cut line.
Dunne has endured a tough run of form over his last number of outings, now missing the cut in four of his last six tournament starts. Dunne hasn’t finished inside the top 20 since April of this year, where he finished seventh at the Volvo China Open.
That was his second top 10 result in April, following his runners-up placing at the Open de Espana. Dunne had held the lead for the first three rounds of the tournament but couldn’t hold off a charge from Spanish native Jon Rahm who claimed victory by two strokes on the final day.
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