Tom McKibbin overcame a shaky start to shoot a one-under round of 70 and book a weekend tee time at the FedEx Open de France at Le Golf National.
The Holywood man hasn’t quite been at his brilliant best this week, and bogeys on the par-5 third and par-4 seventh holes saw him reach the turn at +2 on the day and level-par for the tournament.
As one of the late starters on day two, he knew that the cutline was likely to fall at -1, meaning he’d have to shoot in the red on the back nine if he was going to be sticking around. Birdies on 11, 12 and 14 quickly got him back the right side of the mark, and he parred his way home and goes into the weekend six back and primed for a big push up the leaderboard.
Thomas Detry carded an eight under par 63 to take a share of the lead into the weekend.
The Belgian’s effort was the lowest round of the week thus far at Le Golf National, matching the 63 he carded during the second round of the Men’s Olympic Golf Competition at this venue in August.
The 31-year-old started the day five shots off the lead and carded four birdies each on his front and back nines as he went bogey free, joining Jesper Svensson of Sweden and Englishman Dan Bradbury at the top of the leaderboard.
“Got off to a great start,” summarised Detry. “It’s the type of golf course where it gives you a couple of opportunities in the first cup of holes, if you drive it well, which I did all week so far, you can go low. We all know going in the rough is not good. I hit in the rough a couple of times and came out with bad lies.
“I’ve hit a lot of fairways the last two days and I’ve been playing much better today, at least. Struggled a little bit on the greens yesterday, and kind of changed my mindset, not hoping for it to go in and just try to hit good putts, and they went in today.”
Svensson, who held a share of the first round lead carded a three under par 68 as he bids for a second DP World Tour victory in his rookie season after his Porsche Singapore Classic success in March.
Bradbury birdied the ninth hole, his last, to join them at the summit, signing for a five under par 66. Like Svensson, the 25-year-old is also hunting his second title after winning the Joburg Open in 2022.
Five golfers share fourth place, with the Danish pair of Rasmus Højgaard and Thorbjørn Olesen, Simon Forsström of Sweden, Englishman Paul Waring and Fabrizio Zanotti of Paraguay reaching eight under par after 36 holes.
Making his 560th and final DP World Tour appearance Frenchman Grégory Havret carded a five under par 66 to make the cut on the number, going nine strokes better than his first round 75.