Thornton and Kearney progress in Paris
Simon Thornton is making birdies in Paris.Simon Thornton carded a second successive 68 but found himself five shots adrift of Scotland’s Jamie McLeary at the halfway stage of the Allianz Challenge de France.
The Co Down based Englishman, now playing under the Irish flag, had seven birdies in a three under par effort at Golf Disneyland near Paris.
He’s tied for eight place on six under after a day that saw McLeary fire eight birdies in a bogey free 63, the lowest round of his professional career, to open up a two-stroke lead over England’s Andrew Marshall (65).
He said: “The eight birdies were very welcome but I was almost as pleased with no bogeys, because there are some very tricky holes out there.
“I only made one bogey on the first day, and I actually played that quite well, just had a dodgy lie in the semi-rough. So I’m playing very well, and now I want to try to capitalise on it and push on over the weekend.
“I had a few chances to win last year but got a bit too defensive and cautious, so I’m going to try to go for the jugular and be a bit more attacking at the weekend.
“I had a bit of a talk with myself and worked really hard on my game over the winter – my fiancée’s been a bit of a golf widow! But hopefully the hard work will pay off.”
Royal Dublin’s Niall Kearney made the cut on the two under par limit after a 72 but Colm Moriarty missed out by two shots after a second successive 71.
The Glasson man dropped five shots in his first six holes after starting on the back nine before making a great comeback.
He birdied the 17th and 18th, eagled the par-five sixth and then birdied the ninth but still came up short.
131 J McLeary (Sco) 68 63,
133 A Marshall (Eng) 68 65,
134 S Little (Eng) 70 64, N Meitinger (Ger) 71 63, C Ford (Eng) 67 67,
135 B Hebert (Fra) 69 66, B Akesson (Swe) 69 66,
136 A Domingo (Esp) 70 66, G Houston (Wal) 67 69, J Quesne (Fra) 69 67, F Colombo (Ita) 69 67, A Ahokas (Fin) 67 69, J Palmer (Eng) 70 66, G Molteni (Ita) 67 69, S Thornton (Irl) 68 68, M Kieffer (Ger) 69 67,
137 A Bernadet (Fra) 68 69, A McArthur (Sco) 69 68, R Santos (Por) 71 66, G Cambis (Fra) 72 65, F Calmels (Fra) 71 66, A Forsyth (Sco) 71 66, A Pavan (Ita) 69 68, D Vancsik (Arg) 70 67, D Brooks (Eng) 67 70, J Lagergren (Swe) 64 73,
138 B Chapellan (Fra) 67 71, P Archer (Eng) 69 69, X Poncelet (Fra) 69 69, C Gane (Eng) 69 69, C Lee (Sco) 70 68, T Fleetwood (Eng) 69 69, R Bechu (Fra) 66 72, S Robinson (Eng) 70 68, P Gustafsson (Swe) 68 70, M Glauert (Ger) 70 68, A Snobeck (Fra) 73 65,
139 M Cryer (Eng) 67 72, M Evans (Eng) 67 72, E Dubois (Fra) 71 68, M Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 67 72, P Edberg (Swe) 70 69, J Heath (Eng) 69 70, M Warren (Sco) 73 66, A Bossert (Sui) 69 70, E Kofstad (Nor) 67 72, C Lloyd (Eng) 73 66,
140 K Eriksson (Swe) 71 69, J Lopez Lazaro (Fra) 68 72, M Lundberg (Swe) 72 68, B Ritthammer (Ger) 72 68, S Bebb (Wal) 71 69, J Billot (Fra) 70 70, C Russo (Fra) 71 69, J Lima (Por) 71 69, D Perrier (Fra) 72 68, G Lockerbie (Eng) 71 69, N Kearney (Irl) 68 72, L Jensen (Den) 71 69, R De Sousa (Sui) 72 68,
Missed cut:
142 C Moriarty (Irl) 71 71