Mobile phone shop manager Colm Campbell was dialled-in as he fired a 68 to grab a share of the lead with defending champion Paul Dunne in the East of Ireland at Baltray.

But former European Tour pro Stephen Browne believes he still has a chance despite shooting a 74 to trail the leaders by nine shots.

As Dunne made four birdies and four bogeys in 72 to share top spot with Warrenpoint ace Campbell on four under, Browne raced to five under seven holed before getting tangled in Baltray’s thick rough.

“I had a putt on eight to go five under from six feet, missed that and bogeyed nine, 10, 11, 12, doubled 14,” said the 40-year old who quit the tour six years ago before rejoining the amateur ranks. 

“The golf course is absolutely fantastic but it’s right on the edge so if you are slightly out anywhere — the greens are firm, the rough is up and it’s windy — you are in trouble. 

“It’s US Open style but in terms of my golf, it is a really good test. But I got it going today and I got it going the first day as well so I still think I have a chance.”

Campbell and Dunne lead by a shot from Cork’s Gary O’Flaherty (71) with Naas Conor O’Rourke (68) and West Waterford’s Gary Hurley (70) four behind on level par.

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East of Ireland Amateur Open, Sponsored by CityNorth Hotel, Co Louth (Par 72)

Monday's tee-times

1st tee/10th tee

(0700/1312) Lindsay, Shanahan, Coghlan

10th tee/10th tee

(0700/1200) Wylie, Thomas, O'Hara

(0709/1209) Purdy, Egan, Sinclair

(0718/1218) Best, Doran, Lowry

(0727/1227) Ashby, Geraghty, Hopkins

(0736/1236) M O'Rourke, Selfridge, Gorey 

(0745/1245) Smith, Kennedy, Hanna 

(0754/1254) Browne, Hickey, Fox

(0803/1303) Purdy, O'Leary, McGlynn

1st tee/ 1st tee

(0709/1200) Bryan, Bridges, McHugh 

(0718/1209) Carroll, Gleeson, Collins

(0727/1218) Rafferty, Reavey, Le Blanc

(0736/1227) Murray, Anderson, Galbraith

(0745/1236) O'Reilly, McCormack, Grant

(0754/1245) Lenehan, Coulter, Arthurs

(0803/1254) Ryan, Hurley, C O'Rourke

(0812/1303) O'Flaherty, Dunne, Campbell

Qualifiers

140 Colm Campbell (Warrenpoint) 72 68, Paul Dunne (Greystones) 68 72

141 Gary O'Flaherty (Cork) 70 71

144 Conor O'Rourke (Naas) 76 68, Gary Hurley (West Waterford) 74 70

145 Sean Ryan (The Royal Dublin) 75 70, Eoin Arthurs (Forrest Little.) 75 70, Stephen Coulter (Warrenpoint) 70 75, Geoff Lenehan (Portmarnock) 69 76

146 Aaron Grant (Dundalk) 75 71, Brian O'Reilly (Athenry) 74 72, Eddie McCormack (Galway) 74 72, Barry Anderson (The Royal Dublin) 73 73, John-Ross Galbraith (Whitehead) 73 73, Pat Murray (Limerick) 72 74 , Kevin Le Blanc (The Island) 71 75 , Paul Reavey (Warrenpoint) 70 76, 

147 Caolan Rafferty (Dundalk) 78 69, Gary Collins (Rosslare) 74 73, Chris Carroll (Shandon Park) 72 75, Alex Gleeson (Castle) 72 75, Harry McHugh (Skerries) 68 79

148 Richard Bridges (Stackstown) 74 74, Simon Bryan (Delgany) 73 75, Darragh Coghlan (Portmarnock) 71 77

149 Mark Shanahan (Castlemartyr) 79 70, James Lindsay (North West) 76 73, Tony O'Leary (Wexford) 76 73, James Fox (Portmarnock) 76 73, Ally Purdy (Ballyclare) 76 73, Shane McGlynn (Carton House) 76 73, John Hickey (Cork) 75 74, Stephen Browne (Hermitage) 75 74, William Hanna (Kilkeel) 74 75, Caolan Kennedy (Forrest Little.) 73 76, Eugene Smith (Ardee) 72 77, Niall Gorey (Palmerstown Stud) 71 78

150 Chris Selfridge (Moyola Park) 78 72, Jeff Hopkins (The Royal Dublin) 77 73, Mark O'Rourke (Royal Tara) 77 73, Cian Geraghty (Laytown & Bettystown) 76 74, Liam Ashby (Naas) 76 74, Alan Lowry (Esker Hills) 75 75, Connor Doran (Banbridge) 75 75, Ben Best (Rathmore) 74 76, Michael Sinclair (Knock) 71 79

151 Keith Egan (Carton House) 77 74, Phillip Purdy (Shandon Park) 76 75, Steffan O'Hara (Co. Sligo) 75 76, Alan Thomas (Dungarvan) 74 77, Matthew Wylie (Portugal) 73 78

Non Qualifiers

151 Jamie Richardson (Royal Portrush) 72 79

152 Christopher Maclean (Balmore Ltd) 80 72, Sean Barry (Fota Island) 78 74, Matthew McClean (Balmoral) 77 75, Thomas O'Connor (Athlone) 77 75, Alexander Wilson (Portmarnock) 77 75, Niall Goulding (Portmarnock) 76 76, Colin Fairweather (Knock) 76 76, Keith Crowley (Fota Island) 75 77, Joe Lyons (Galway) 75 77, Jim Carvill (Banbridge) 75 77, Stephen Healy (Claremorris) 74 78

153 Eoin O'Connor (Elm Park) 82 71, Jonathan Gourley (Shandon Park) 82 71, Paul Burke (Mullingar) 80 73, Gary McDermott (Carton House) 77 76, Damien McCusker (Moyola Park) 77 76, Eanna Griffin (Waterford) 77 76, Liam Harnett (Milltown) 77 76, Bryan McSweeney (The Royal Dublin) 77 76, Jack Pierse (Portmarnock) 76 77, Robert Cannon (Balbriggan) 76 77, Gerard Dunne (Co. Louth) 76 77 , Ronan Mullarney (Galway) 76 77 , Gareth Lappin (Belvoir Park) 75 78 , Richard Knightly (The Royal Dublin) 75 78,

154 Evan Farrell (Ardee) 80 74, Kevin Stack (Dungarvan) 79 75, Desmond Morgan (Mullingar) 78 76, Stuart Grehan (Tullamore) 77 77, Kelan McDonagh (The Royal Dublin) 76 78, Marc Boucher (Carton House) 76 78, Greg Mungovan (Headfort) 75 79, James Sugrue (Mallow) 75 79, Daniel Brennan (Shannon) 74 80

155 Rowan Lester (Hermitage) 81 74, Seamus Cullen (Slieve Russell) 79 76, Edward O'Keeffe (Corrstown) 78 77, Sean Maloney (Dunmurry Springs) 77 78, Thomas Mulligan (Laytown & Bettystown) 76 79, Gareth Bohill (Co. Louth) 75 80, John Greene (Portmarnock) 74 81

156 Stephen Brady (Co. Sligo) 82 74, Greg Carew (Edenderry) 80 76, Ian O'Rourke (The Royal Dublin) 79 77, Roy Connolly (Palmerstown Stud) 78 78, Noel Crawford (Mourne) 78 78, Mark Mullen (Wexford) 78 78 , Ronan O'Reilly (Headfort) 77 79 , Stephen Egan (Castle Barna) 77 79 , Karl Purcell (Dun Laoghaire) 76 80 , Daniel Holland (Castle) 75 81,

157 Padhraic O'Brien (Co. Louth) 81 76, Ryan O'Dwyer (Callan) 80 77, James Monaghan (The Royal Dublin) 80 77, Paul Coughlan (Moate) 78 79, Ryan McKinstry (Cairndhu) 78 79, Ryan Symington (Lisburn) 77 80 , Shaun Carter (Stackstown) 76 81,

158 Keagan Cummings (Elm Park) 82 76, Mark Morrissey (Mount Wolseley) 80 78, Tiarnan McLarnon (Massereene) 80 78, David Foy (Laytown & Bettystown) 80 78, Declan Reidy (Co. Sligo) 79 79, Paraic Connolly (Killeen Castle) 79 79, Niall Foley (The Island) 79 79, Stephen Walsh (Portmarnock) 79 79, Alec Myles (Newlands) 78 80, John McGinn (Laytown & Bettystown) 78 80, Kenny McGarry (Castlemartyr) 76 82, Shaun O'Connor (Luttrellstown Castle) 75 83

159 Alan Dowling (Hermitage) 82 77, Neville Steedman (Courtown) 82 77, David Lally (Mullingar) 81 78, Ruairi Kennelly (Portmarnock) 79 80, Daniel Coyle (Co. Louth) 79 80, Allan Kiernan (Forrest Little.) 79 80, Jonathan Yates (Naas) 78 81

160 David Brady (Co. Sligo) 81 79, Angus Carrick (Douglas Park) 81 79, Eoghan O'Donovan (Craddockstown) 81 79, William Russell (Clandeboye) 79 81, David Reddan (Nenagh) 79 81, Thomas Kennedy (Woodbrook) 78 82

161 Declan O'Neill (Carton House) 81 80, Ian Lynch (Rosslare) 80 81

162 David Carey (Carton House) 79 83

163 Michael Lancaster (Canada) 85 78, Jamie Sutherland (Galgorm Castle) 82 81, Quentin Carew (Edenderry) 80 83, Edward Ryan (Lucan) 80 83

165 Stephen McCarthy (Black Bush) 81 84

166 Paul Flynn (Tramore) 85 81, Craig Melvin (Corrstown) 79 87

167 Liam Hutchinson (The Royal Dublin) 86 81, Robbie Pierse (Grange) 83 84

169 Declan Loftus (Castlebar) 83 86

171 Chris Tormey (Corballis Links) 85 86

WD/DQ Martin O'Toole (Lucan) 83 WD, Theo Coffey (Slieve Russell) 88 WD, Harry Diamond (Belvoir Park) DQ DQ, Shane Hogan (Nenagh) 82 WD, Lee McMillan (Craddockstown) WD, Gerard Lawlor (Rathsallagh) WD, Matthew Kane (Whitehead) WD 

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Naas' Conor O'Rourke leads the East of Ireland Amateur in the clubhouse on level par after carding a fine second round 68 in blustery conditions at Co Louth.

Live Scoring

With the rough longer and thicker than it has been in recent years, O'Rourke started on the back nine and bogeyed the 13th before going on a birdie run, picking up shots at the 14th, 15th, 16th and 18th to turn in 32. 

With the wind picking up, he bogeyed the downwind first but birdied the sixth and ninth to end the day on level par 144.

Overnight leaders Paul Dunne of Greystones and Harry McHugh from Skerries, both of whom shot 68s on Saturday, were among the afternoon starters on a day when disaster is waiting to strike at any moment.

Royal Dublin's Jeff Hopkins opened with a 77 but got back to level par for the championship when he birdied the third, eagled the sixth and then birdied the eighth and ninth to turn in five under 32.

But he came home in 41 with double bogeys at the 11th and 16th and bogeys at the 15th and 17th for a 73 that leaves him in dangerously close to the cut line on six over par.

The leading 51 players are today's second round will qualify for the final 36 holes on Monday.