Omens good on Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th was a pretty good day for the Irish on tour.

In Spain, John Kelly gave himself a boost ahead of next week's Q-School when he shot the lowest individual score of the week at the PGAs of Europe International Team Championship.

Kelly, David Ryan and Peter Martin all shot four under par 68s to give Ireland the best score of the day, clinching a share of fourth place at Roda in Murcia.

Ireland, who were the defending champions, finished just four strokes behind Wales on 12 under par.

Kelly broke par on all four days, adding his 68 to previous rounds of 70, 70 and 69 for an 11 under par total. His next task comes in the second stage of the Q-School at Costa Ballena next week.

In Hong Kong, Rory McIlroy had a bad day on the grainy greens but still kept himself in contention at Fanling with a 68 leaving him three off the pace on six under alongside Dubliner Peter Lawrie (68) and two shots clear of Race to Dubai leader Lee Westwood (70).

Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke are only four behind after 68s and both have a chance now to achieve their goals over the last two rounds.

World No 51 McDowell wants to move into the world's top 50 while Clarke, 63rd in the R2D, is looking for a top-20 finish that would qualify him for next week's Dubai World Championship.

At the other end of the money list, Gary Murphy achieved his first objective of the week by making the cut in the JBWere Australian Masters in Melbourne, where Tiger Woods opened up a three stroke lead at halfway.

Murphy believes he will need a top-10 finish to keep his card - he needs to 15 money at th very least to have any chance - and while a 73 relegated him to 34th on level par, he has two more rounds at Kingston Heath to pull the rabbit out of the hat.

A failure would not be the end of the road for the Kilkenny man, who can still save his card in Girona at the end of the month with an appearance in the final stage of the Q-School.