Tour round-up: McGee, Dunbar, Grant and G-Mac go well
Joel Sjolholm leads on the Challenge Tour.
European Tour — Rosapenna rookie Ruaidhri McGee made his first cut on the European Tour when he fired a two under 70 to go into the weekend tied for 18th in the Lyoness Open in Austria.
The 23-year old had five birdies on his card to make the cut with ease on one under par and trail leader Mikael Lundberg by just eight shots.
The Swede made the most of ideal morning conditions adding a 68 to his opening 67 at Diamond Country Club to finish day two a shot ahead of playing partner Lee Slattery on nine under.
Ryder Cup hopeful Joost Luiten is in with a chance of becoming the first player to mount a successful title defence in the €1 million tournament after a flawless round of 67 moved the Dutchman to five under par alongside Wales’ Rhys Davies.
Simon Thornton (74) is tied 37th on one-over with Michael Hoey surviving a back nine wobble to make the four over cut by a shot after a 74.
Hoey raced through his first 10 holes in four under but then dropped six shots in the next four holes and followed a birdie at the 16th with a bogey at the last.
David Higgins (72) and Peter Lawrie (73) missed the cut by one on five over with Kevin Phelan (75) a shot further back.
Damien McGrane also missed out after a 73 left him on seven over — his sixth failure to make the weekend in his last seven starts.
PGA Tour — Heavy rain forced play to be suspended until 7am on Saturday in the FedEx St Jude Championship in Memphis.
Ben Crane added a five under 65 to his opening 63 to lead by seven shots in the clubhouse on 12 under with Graeme McDowell nine behind in three under after rounds of 68 and 69.
Padraig Harrington was level for the day after two holes, tied 24th on two under with Darren Clarke yet to start on three over.
Challenge Tour — Rathmore's Alan Dunbar fired a 70 and The Heritage's Stephen Grant a four under 67 to make the one under par cut on the mark as sensational nine under par 62 gave Sweden’s Joel Sjöholm a commanding four-shot lead at the halfway point of the European Challenge Tour’s Fred Olsen Challenge de España.
Shot 67 today just inside the cut mark for now,sitting here with everything crossed 😃5 over after my 1st 5 holes yesterday was the killer👎😩
— stephen grant (@soccer2golf) June 6, 2014Sjöholm is a man on a mission to return to The European Tour as quickly as possible having lost his playing privileges last season.
Killarney's Danny Sugrue shot 77 to miss the cut by 10 shots.
European Seniors Tour — Des Smyth slipped from the solo lead to seven shots behind Mark James at the halfway stage of ISPS Handa PGA Seniors Championship.
A brilliant, six under par 66 saw James take a one stroke lead over Dane Steen Tinning (68) on eight under at Stoke by nay land Hotel, Golf and Spa as Smyth dropped back to tied 19th on one under after a four over par 75.
Two sevens, on the par-five second and par-four tenth holes, did the damage for Smyth, who is not out of contention.
Ronan Rafferty shot a second successive 70 to share 16th on two under with Denis O'Sullivan tied 37th on one over after a 70,
Philip Walton shot his second 72 on the trot to share 43rd on two over.
