Kearney back in the mix as Fritsch faces flying phobia

Niall Kearney rebounded brilliantly in the second round of the Q-School in Catalonia. On a day when Royal Dublin’s Niall Kearney soared back into contention with a five under par 65, Germany’s Florian Fritsch edged closer to having to deal with his fear of flying.

The 25-year old German flew straight to the top of the leaderboard after the second round of the European Tour Qualifying School final stage when he carded an impressive, seven under par 65 on the testing Stadium Course to lead the field by a stroke on eight-under par.

But if Fritsch is to join his former amateur team mate Martin Kaymer on the European Tour next season, he knows he will need to tackle his aerophobia sooner rather than later.

“I’ve not been on a plane since March,” confessed Fritsch, who played just seven events on the Challenge Tour this year despite the fact that he could have teed it up in every event. “I drove here from Germany. It took a day which was not fun but at least I can get here.

“I’ll not be going anywhere east if I get my card. My primary goal even if I get a card will be to get rid of the fear of flying. I can enter all  the tournaments I want but without be able to fly I can’t play.  So without taking care of that a tour card from here is worthless.”

Fritsch leads by one stroke from Welshman Liam Bond, Norway’s Espen Kofstad, South African George Coetzee and first round pace-setter Steve Lewton of England.

Kearney and former Royal County Down assistant Simon Thornton are the best of the Irish hopefuls in joint 43rd place on one-under par - just a stroke outside the top 30 and ties who will earn cards on Friday evenig.

Former Walker Cup player Kearney had one of the rounds of the day as he recovered from his four over 76 on the Stadium Course with a bogey free effort on the Tour Course.

The 22-year old Royal Dublin player put his resurgence down to a two hour session on the practice range and an early bed time on Sunday night.

“I’m back in it,” Kearney said after a controlled round. “I went to the range for a couple of hours yesterday, hit loads of balls and got my rhythm back. I was out of kilter but it just felt smooth today.

“The 76 yesterday was probably caused by lack of concentration and going back out with six holes of my first round still to play. But I got lots of rest, I was in bed by 9.30, and I was fully focussed today.”

Thornton headed straight for the putting green after holing “nothing at all” in his 69, a score matched by Colm Moriarty, who got back to one-over for the tournament after a testing day on the Tour Course.

“A couple of shots better and you would have been delighted but there is a long way to go still,” said Moriarty, who chipped in for birdie at the 17th. “It was just important to shoot a half decent round today. I didn’t want to shoot two or three over again and go to that tough course tomorrow on the back foot.”

Moriarty is tied for 77th with Belfast’s Damian Mooney, who struggled to a three-over par 75 on the tough Stadium Course after what he described as “one of those days.”

On another day of stiff breeze that made it difficult for players to choose the correct club, Mooney slithered to five over par for the day when he visited water at the par-three 11th and ran up a double bogey six.

He fought back with birdies at the 12th, 14th and 17th but then failed to get up and down from just a few yards off the 18th green.

European Tour Qualifying School final stage, PGA Catalunya Resort (Stadium Course par 72, Tour Course par 70)

After 36 holes:

134 – F Fritsch 69 65.

135 – G Coetzee 72 63, S Lewton 63 72, L Bond 66 69, E Kofstad 71 64.

136 – F Ohlsson 67 69, A Tampion 64 72.

137 – J Knutzon 69 68, L Saltman 68 69, W Ormsby 66 71, J Campillo 66 71, A
Garcia-Heredia 70 67, R Kulacz 69 68, A Gee 66 71, E Saltman 66 71.

138 – J Dantorp 69 69, S Wakefield 70 68, S Garcia 70 68, E Canonica 69 69,
T Norret 69 69.

139 – Ce Monasterio 66 73, B Hebert 72 67, S Norris 68 71, S Luna 72 67, S
Manley 74 65, J Van Zyl 72 67, M Brier 71 68, R Wattel 71 68, R Kakko 71 68,
J Doherty 66 73.

140 – J Guerrier 72 68, ET Johansen 67 73, T Whitehouse 73 67, B Ritthammer
70 70, M Korhonen 73 67, D Lokke 70 70, JM Arruti 74 66, C Del Moral 68 72,
P Oriol 71 69, B Etchart 71 69, C Doak 67 73, S Arnold 72 68, C Lloyd 69 71.

141 – S Davis 71 70, JA Larsen 71 70, N Kearney 76 65, JF Lucquin 64 77, S
Thornton 72 69, J Legarrea 70 71, A Tadini 68 73, A Canete 69 72, T
Feyrsinger 70 71, A Bruschi 68 73, D Denison 70 71, M Ruiz 68 73, M Kieffer
70 71, M Quiros 74 67, F Delamontagne 75 66.

142 – F Valera 69 73, P Edberg 70 72, L Westerberg 72 70, B Evans 70 72, T
Mordt 67 75, T Sluiter 72 70, P Broadhurst 73 69, A Kaleka 69 73, S Little
71 71, N Bollini 70 72, A Forsyth 73 69, F Calmels 72 70, J Robinson 69 73,
L Claverie 72 70, J Ruth 70 72, E Dubois 70 72, J Lagergren 78 64, SSP
Chowrasia 73 69.

143 – J Haeggman 70 73, JF Lima 72 71, D Mooney 68 75, S Hend 74 69, V Riu
68 75, N Johansson 74 69, R De Sousa 69 74, C Moriarty 74 69, C Ford 72 71,
B Chapellan 69 74, C Gane 71 72, A Grenier 71 72, M Southgate 74 69, V
Dubuisson 69 74, M Nixon 74 69, B Grace 66 77, T Leon 73 70, N Meitinger 70
73, M Bliss 72 71, R Steiner 69 74, G Adell 74 69, L Dodd 67 76.

144 – S Walker 77 67, P Dwyer 72 72, S Tiley 73 71, R Russell 69 75, G
Emerson 71 73, M Tunnicliff 70 74, F Henge 69 75, M Lundberg 73 71, S
Harrington 75 69, A Ahokas 75 69, D Brooks 77 67, J Grillon 74 70, A Snobeck
71 73, T Sherreard 69 75, M Warren 72 72, L Gagli 70 74, M Lorenzo-Vera 75
69, A Hartø 68 76.

145 – M Erlandsson 74 71, D Vancsik 72 73, A Coltart 75 70, P Gustafsson 75
70, J Bäckström 74 71, J Elson 76 69, R Kind 72 73, J Colomo 73 72, B Miarka
74 71.

146 – S Bebb 77 69, C Suneson 71 75, S Drummond 72 74, B Pieters 71 75, J
Mcleary 71 75, J Sandelin 75 71, M Soffietti 71 75, A Jacobsson 77 69, C
Brazillier 70 76, J Etulain 78 68.

147 – Max Kramer 69 78.

148 – A Hall 77 71, S Hutsby 78 70, V Almstrom 77 71, A Perrino 76 72.

149 – O David 77 72, D Beck 73 76, O Fraustro 76 73, M Cryer 77 72, J Barnes
73 76, A Haig 75 74, C Carranza 72 77, CE Russo 77 72, M Rosenfeld 74 75.

150 – F Colombo 75 75, G Bhullar 73 77, J Pettersson 75 75

151 – M Vibe-Hastrup 74 77

152 – J Clément 73 79

153 – B Hafthorsson 80 73

154 – R Bescansa 77 77

157 – M Dam 83 74