Just three Irish make the cut at Lytham Trophy

Jeff Hopkins is having a good week at the Lytham Trophy.Skerries’ Jeff Hopkins, defending champion Paul Cutler and Newlands’ Andrew Hogan were the only Irish players to make the halfway cut in the Lytham Trophy at Royal Lytham and St Annes.

Plus two handicapper Hopkins, 19, shot a nine over par 79 on another day of high scoring at the Lancashire venue to go into Sunday’s final 36 holes six strokes adrift of leader Tom Lewis on 13 over par.

Portstewart star Cutler, who was crowned West of Ireland champion on Tuesday, also shot a 79 to share 26th place and trail Lewis by eight shots on 14 over.

Hogan added an 80 to his opening 75 to make the 16 over par cut for the top 40 and ties with a shot to spare.

In the end, exactly 40 players finished on 16 over or better with Welwyn Garden City’s Lewis two strokes clear of Jordan Findlay (77-72), Finn Miro Veijalainen (77-72) and Arnaud Abbas (72-77) of France on seven over par.

Ballymena’s Dermot McElroy (78-80) missed the cut by two shots with Dunmurry’s Stephen Crowe (75-85) and Rathmore’s Alan Dunbar (74-86) four strokes outside the mark on 20 over.

Greystones’ Paul Dunne (81-80) and Waterford Castle’s Kevin Phelan (76-85) were a shot further back on 21 over