Millicent’s Brian Doran continued his fine run of form to grab a share of the lead heading into the final two rounds of the Mullingar Men’s Scratch Trophy.
Doran (pictured above by Golffile) is tied at the top with Fota Island’s David Howard on five-under in the Pinergy/Davitt & Davitt sponsored classic, one ahead of Dooks’ Conor Hickey.
Runner up in the recent South of Ireland Championship, Doran made eight birdies in an opening 68 before adding four more birdies and an eagle two in difficult conditions in a second round 71.
“Today was a grind with the wind and the bit of rain that we got,” said Doran.
“In general, overall, I played okay, very good in patches and then couple of little mistakes on other holes, but it was nice to take care of the par fives which you have to do around Mullingar especially 14 and 18 and then also the eagle on six was nice too.
“I hit it to about 15 feet over the flag so it was nice to see that go in for the two.”
He added: “Looking forward to tomorrow. Gained a lot of experience over the last few weeks, especially last week at the South. It didn’t go my way but that’s golf. I’ll give it a go again tomorrow and see where that puts us.”
Howard signed for a first-round 71, highlighted by a run of three birdies in a row from the 14th, followed by a 68 in round two which featured closing birdies at the 17th and 18th
The cut fell at five over par with the top 44 qualifying for the final day.
Hickey lies just one shot off the lead after rounds of 69 and 71 with Malahide’s Gavin O’Neill, Nenagh’s David Reddan, Athenry’s Sean O’Connell and former winner Jake Whelan from Grangeis are just two shots off the pace on three-under.
With 14 players on level par or better, it promises to be an exciting final day as the players bid to join Padraig Harrington, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry on the roll of honour at the James Braid designed course.
View the scoring here