Updated 18:00
JEEV MILKHA SINGH remains at the summit of the leaderboard at the halfway stage of the Irish Open, but he’s has been joined there by former Irish Open champion Soren Hansen.
Though he was unable to recapture the stellar form that saw him navigate Killarney’s eighteen holes in a mere 63 strokes yesterday, the Indian nonetheless surmounted one of tournament golf’s more difficult challenges in following a spectacular round with a respectable one. His one-under-par second round of 70 included four birdies and three bogeys.
If the play of the first-round leader was steady, that of many of his nearest challengers was significantly more impressive.
Firing six birdies en route to a 66 to match an opening 67, Hansen’s glittering 36 holes have enlivened what has thus far been a dispiriting season.
France’s Raphael Jacquelin, who played his opening rounds in the company of Singh and Paul McGinley, sits in a tie for third place alongside the English trio of Ross Fisher, Simon Wakefiled and Simon Dyson, Australia’s Richard Green and Spaniard Ignacio Garrido.
Scotland’s Richie Ramsay was the eighteenth hole’s biggest caualty of the day. No stranger to crushing disappointment of comedic proportions, the Scot finished bogey-double-bogey to plummet from a late morning share of second place to what is now, at day’s end, a significantly less impressive tie for seventeeth.
The Irish challenge is jointly led by Damien McGrane, Peter Lawrie, Michael Hoey and the surprise package of the tournament so far, Northern Irish amateur Paul Cutler. The quartet share an aggregate total of six-under-par, three adrift of the lead.
In contrast to the success enjoyed by their comparatively unheralded compatriots, both Darren Clarke and Padraig Harrington look set to miss the cut after lacklustre second rounds of 74 and 72, respectively.
Late starters Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell improved on their first round scores– the latter dramatically so– to reach four-under-par and claim a places on the periphery of contention heading into the weekend.
