Round up: Rice tied 10th at Sunshine Tour Q-School; Loftus set for Alps test
Bloemfontein Golf Club
Sunshine Tour — Limerick’s Tim Rice inside the crucial top 30 after the second round of the 90-hole Sunshine Tour Qualifying School in South Africa.
The former Irish international followed his one under 71 at Bloemfontein Golf Club with a three under 69 at Schoeman Park to share 10th place on four under par, two strokes inside the Top 30 who will win Sunshine Tour cards.
Rice, 38, is one of four Irishmen in a field of 272 who must play two rounds at each venue with the top 60 players and ties making the cut for the final round.
Northern Ireland’s John McClean is tied 43rd on one-under after rounds of 70 and 73 with Royal Dublin amateurs Jeff Hopkins and Shaun Carter tied 55th and 135th respectively.
Hopkins followed his first round 71 at Bloemfontein with a one over 73 at Schoeman Park while Connacht interprovincial Carter was three over playing the last at Bloemfontein and took a triple bogey seven for a 77 that left him on five over.
Portugal’s Antonio Rosado shares top spot on eight-under par with England’s Johnny Evans and South African Andre de Decker, one stroke clear of Bryandrew Roelofsz and Michael Palmer.
Loftus tees it up at Alps Tour Q-School
Alps Tour — Former Irish Intervarsity champion Declan Loftus is the lone Irishman at Stage One of the Alps Tour Q-School in Spain.
Winner of the Irish title in 2014, Loftus is one of 155 players set to tee it up at La Cala near Malaga hoping to earn one of the 93 spots at next week’s Second Stage where David Carey and amateurs Tommy O’Driscoll and Kevin LeBlanc are already entered.
Loftus tees it up on the Asia Course where the there will be 41 spots for the 72-man field. Players on the Europa course will play for 30 spots with 22 available from the America Course.
Scores/entry lists
