Kearney six off the pace in Turkey
The National Golf Club. Picture via turkishairlineschallenge.com
He might have had a triple bogey eight at the first but Niall Kearney is still just six shots off the lead in the Turkish Airlines Challenge at the National Golf Club in Antalya.
The Royal Dublin man shot a one over 73 to share 23rd spot on one over as Welshman Oliver Farr fired a 67 to lead by a stroke on five under from Guillaume Cambis of France.
Ruaidhri McGee shot a second successive 73 to share 34th on two over with Gareth Shaw a shot further back in 42nd after a 70.
Birr's Stephen Grant carded a 75 to miss the cut by two shots.
Farr (26) bogeyed the tenth – his first – to drop to one over for the tournament, following a level par opening round 72, but a birdie at the par three 11th was a much more accurate representation of what was to come.
Four birdies in the space of six holes from the 15th put him right in the mix at the top of the leaderboard and, while his second bogey of the day came at the sixth hole, he picked up two more shots at the seventh and ninth to move one clear of first round leader Guillaume Cambis.
“It was just one of those rounds where I hit a lot of good shots, which you have to do around this course,” said Farr, who won the satellite EuroPro Tour Rankings last year. “If you’re slightly off you can be punished. I hit two bad shots today and I had two bogeys from them.
“Other than that I was really in control and I holed some good putts, so five under is a score I'm really happy with out there.
“I think the greens yesterday afternoon were very baked out and firm so I found it hard to control the shots. My chipping was quite good yesterday to shoot level but today I had a lot of wedge approach shots, which was nice, and I controlled them really well.
“I'm definitely looking forward to the weekend. I haven’t looked at the scoreboards much today but five under is pretty good after two rounds so I'm happy with that.
“I've just got to continue what I did today and that’s my goal. I might work on a couple of things before the third round but barring that, I’ll just try what I did for the first two days.
“It’s a course I do like. I like the tree-lined courses and I feel it suits my game a little bit better than the wide open courses."
Cambis signed for a level par round of 72 to stay on four under par and the Frenchman had a birdie at the 18th to thank after a one under front nine was soon followed by a double-bogey at the 12th.
Englishman Dave Coupland and Scott Arnold were a shot further back in tied fifth having signed for rounds of 70 and 71, respectively.
Germany’s Bernd Ritthammer, meanwhile, completed a remarkable comeback as he followed his six over opening round of 78 with a six under par 66, a course record, to move to within five of the lead.
Scores:
139 O Farr (Wal) 72 67,
140 G Cambis (Fra) 68 72,
141 D Coupland (Eng) 71 70, S Arnold (Aus) 70 71,
142 J Lando Casanova (Fra) 71 71, N Quintarelli (Ita) 72 70, B An (Kor) 70 72, B Åkesson (Swe) 71 71, M Jonzon (Swe) 69 73, J Harrison (Eng) 71 71, C Paisley (Eng) 69 73,
143 A Johnston (Eng) 70 73, J Fahrbring (Swe) 73 70, N Ravano (Ita) 75 68, E Espana (Fra) 72 71, W Booth (Sco) 71 72,
144 J Huldahl (Den) 76 68, B Hebert (Fra) 73 71, B Ritthammer (Ger) 78 66, G Lockerbie (Eng) 73 71, L Corfield (Eng) 73 71, R McEvoy (Eng) 72 72,
145 N Lemke (Swe) 74 71, M Ford (Eng) 69 76, C Hanson (Eng) 74 71, J Makitalo (Fin) 73 72, J Lagergren (Swe) 71 74, P Figueiredo (Por) 71 74, A Marshall (Eng) 74 71, R Coles (Eng) 70 75, N Kearney (Irl) 72 73,
146 M Delpodio (Ita) 71 75, G Woolgar (Eng) 73 73, R Steiner (Aut) 73 73, R McGee (Irl) 73 73, M Orrin (Eng) 72 74, P Edberg (Swe) 72 74, M Lampert (Ger) 74 72, S Tiley (Eng) 75 71, A Tadini (Ita) 73 73, M Rominger (Sui) 76 70,
147 B Chapellan (Fra) 72 75, O Stark (Swe) 71 76, N Kimsey (Eng) 72 75, G Shaw (Nir) 77 70, A Björk (Swe) 74 73,
148 P Widegren (Swe) 74 74, C Bouniol (Fra) 77 71, T Linard (Fra) 74 74, A Bernadet (Fra) 73 75, L Nemecz (Aut) 73 75, J Barnes (Eng) 73 75,
149 T Sluiter (Ned) 78 71, S Little (Eng) 73 76, M Wiegele (Aut) 71 78, K Samooja (Fin) 74 75, J Sjöholm (Swe) 75 74, A Snobeck (Fra) 75 74, C Mivis (Bel) 74 75, L Jensen (Den) 74 75, L Goddard (Eng) 76 73, W Besseling (Ned) 74 75, F Bergamaschi (Ita) 73 76,
CUT
150 P Maddy (Eng) 76 74, D Stewart (Sco) 73 77, D Ulrich (Sui) 74 76, J Palmer (Eng) 70 80, A McArthur (Sco) 74 76, D Geminiani (Ita) 78 72, S Matus (Cze) 74 76, H Joannes (Bel) 75 75, J Garcia Del Moral (Esp) 77 73, P Dwyer (Eng) 76 74, E Johansen (Nor) 74 76,
151 D Vancsik (Arg) 77 74, R Enoch (Wal) 74 77, S Brown (Eng) 75 76, S Grant (Irl) 76 75, A Altuntas (am) (Tur) 77 74,
152 T Pulkkanen (Fin) 78 74, G Wright (Wal) 78 74, L Claverie (Esp) 75 77, P McKechnie (Sco) 76 76, M Lafeber (Ned) 74 78,
153 D Frittelli (RSA) 75 78, G Watremez (Bel) 76 77, W Huang (Chn) 72 81, J Winther (Den) 82 71, C Lloyd (Eng) 79 74, R Davies (Wal) 72 81, C Russo (Fra) 77 76, D Gaunt (Eng) 80 73, P Archer (Eng) 75 78, J Kennegard (Swe) 74 79, A Rota (Ita) 74 79, R Russell (Sco) 74 79,
154 J Legarrea (Esp) 76 78, O Wilson (Eng) 76 78, S Hutsby (Eng) 75 79, T Lee (USA) 75 79, D Law (Sco) 80 74, N Raymond (Eng) 79 75, T Remkes (Ned) 76 78, B Karatas (Tur) 82 72,
155 C Ford (Eng) 76 79, J Gonnet (Fra) 77 78, F Praegant (Aut) 79 76, T Nørret (Den) 76 79, N Johansson (Swe) 80 75, M Trappel (Aut) 72 83, D Gavins (Eng) 78 77, B Evans (Eng) 77 78, L Kennedy (Eng) 73 82,
156 R Kind (Ned) 79 77, L Gagli (Ita) 78 78, G Porteous (Eng) 71 85, J Rask (Swe) 81 75, M Grönberg (Swe) 79 77, S Garcia Rodriguez (Esp) 79 77, M Haines (Eng) 78 78,
157 P Gal (Cze) 80 77, C Kelly (Sco) 76 81, R Hahn (Hun) 78 79, B Virto (Esp) 80 77, O Floren (Swe) 82 75, H Esmer (am) (Tur) 76 81,
158 D Kemmer (USA) 83 75, O Henningsson (Swe) 78 80, B Kara (Tur) 80 78, K Benz (Sui) 77 81, N Thommen (Sui) 82 76, C Brazillier (Fra) 80 78,
159 A Korinek (Cze) 78 81, H Sayin (Tur) 75 84, G Murray (Sco) 79 80, H Yamac (Tur) 80 79,
160 C Macaulay (Sco) 78 82,
161 U Karatas (Tur) 80 81, M Glauert (Ger) 81 80, S Akarsu (am) (Tur) 83 78,
162 J Elson (Eng) 81 81, M Guner (am) (Tur) 83 79,
163 S Bay (Tur) 80 83, O Aydin (Tur) 83 80,
164 A Perrino (Ita) 86 78,
165 M Hensby (Aus) 86 79,
168 C Kaya (Tur) 84 84, D Suchan (Cze) 90 78,
169 M Ceylan (Tur) 86 83,
170 M Hocaoglu (Tur) 82 88,
173 E Kemaloglu (am) (Tur) 87 86,
174 A Rajmont (Cze) 90 84,
182 E Demirci (Tur) 91 91,
187 K Kalafatoglu (Tur) 93 94,
** M Haastrup (Den) 81 WD, A Akyurek (Tur) 94 WD,
