Hume just four off the lead at Al Hamra
Romain Langasque. Picture: Phil Inglis
Gary Hurley missed the cut by one but Jack Hume is in contention with Chris Selfridge and Cormac Sharvin in the pack in the Ras Al Khaimah 2016 Golf Challenge in the UAE.
As Hurley (70) missed out on one under par, Hume made four birdies in a 70 to end the day tied 13th on seven under, four shots behind Romain Langasque.
The Frenchman stormed into the halfway lead with a five under par 67 taking him to 11 under par overall at Al Hamra Golf Club
It has been an outstanding maiden season in professional golf for the 21 year old, featuring three runner-up finishes and three further top fives on the Road to Oman, and he knows a victory would be a fitting way to prepare for European Tour life next year.
“It would be the perfect way to finish the year,” said the current Rankings Number Ten. “It could be very interesting, if I won this week, to have a chance next week to win the Grand Final too.
“Let’s see what happens this week first, I’m just going to do my best and have fun. If we think about objectives, of course, I want to win, but it’s not the first objective which is just to play my best every hole, and for the moment I’ve made a good start.
“I just want to continue like this and stay patient – I thought too much about the win in Kazakhstan so this week I’ll try to go shot by shot and just do my best.
“This is my first time here and we’re really lucky with this weather. The course is quite young I think but the design is very fun to play because you can make a lot of birdies but there’s strategy involved and you have to be patient too.
“You have to be aggressive round here too, which is my natural game too – it suits me perfectly because I don’t have to change my style, I like that.
“It’s a really fun place to play, and I played really well, I liked the course, so that’s two really good rounds to start this event and we will now have to see how the weekend goes.”
Behind Langasque are Johan Edfors, who birdied five of his final six holes to get to ten under par alongside Garrick Porteous and overnight co-leader Pontus Widegren.
Selfridge made an eagle, a birdie and three bogeys in a 72 that left him tied 47th on three under with Sharvin, who recovered from his opening 74 with an excellent, six birdie 67.
Scores after round 2:
133 R Langasque (Fra) 66 67,
134 G Porteous (Eng) 67 67, P Widegren (Swe) 65 69, J Edfors (Swe) 68 66,
135 J Smith (Eng) 69 66, P Oriol (Esp) 69 66, M Wiegele (Aut) 66 69, M Kinhult (Swe) 68 67, R Fox (Nzl) 67 68, P Angles (Esp) 71 64, M Orrin (Eng) 65 70,
136 C Ford (Eng) 68 68,
137 D Law (Sco) 68 69, J Heath (Eng) 70 67, Jack Hume (Irl) 67 70, D Frittelli (RSA) 71 66, J Dantorp (Swe) 68 69, D Stewart (Sco) 68 69, A Tadini (Ita) 70 67, N Ravano (Ita) 69 68,
138 J White (Eng) 68 70, N Cullen (Aus) 67 71, A Saddier (Fra) 70 68, D Perrier (Fra) 70 68, J Lima (Por) 71 67, P Mejow (Ger) 72 66, G Forrest (Sco) 67 71, J Senior (Eng) 72 66, B Ritthammer (Ger) 69 69, M Lampert (Ger) 69 69,
139 E Kofstad (Nor) 66 73, J Girrbach (Sui) 68 71, S Henry (Sco) 66 73, O Stark (Swe) 70 69, B Poke (Den) 69 70, R Santos (Por) 68 71,
140 A Björk (Swe) 71 69, K Eriksson (Swe) 72 68, P Maddy (Eng) 68 72, S Tiley (Eng) 70 70, W Besseling (Ned) 68 72, K Samooja (Fin) 74 66, E Dubois (Fra) 73 67, M Pavon (Fra) 72 68, S Forsström (Swe) 68 72, O Farr (Wal) 73 67,
141 J Makitalo (Fin) 69 72, J Barnes (Eng) 72 69, M Søgaard (Den) 69 72, A Rai (Eng) 69 72, M Armitage (Eng) 70 71, Cormac Sharvin (Nir) 74 67, Chris Selfridge (Nir) 69 72, R Enoch (Wal) 70 71, R Kellett (Sco) 68 73, J Stalter (Fra) 69 72, D Van Driel (Ned) 71 70, R Thomas (am) (Ind) 71 70,
142 S Jeppesen (Swe) 69 73, G King (Eng) 72 70, T Detry (Bel) 73 69, B Stow (Eng) 70 72, M Delpodio (Ita) 70 72, J Sjöholm (Swe) 72 70, M Schneider (Ger) 69 73, M Ovesen (Den) 71 71, C Del Moral (Esp) 70 72, R Saxton (Ned) 70 72, A Karlsson (Swe) 71 71, S Heisele (Ger) 74 68,
CUT
143 J Guerrier (Fra) 72 71, J Garcia Pinto (Esp) 71 72, T Lawrence (RSA) 72 71, Gary Hurley (Irl) 73 70, D Huizing (Ned) 71 72, L Gagli (Ita) 70 73, D Gaunt (Aus) 71 72, V Riu (Fra) 71 72,
144 M Trappel (Aut) 74 70, M Nixon (Eng) 72 72, T Murray (Eng) 73 71, C Bouniol (Fra) 74 70, A Knappe (Ger) 72 72, S Fernandez (Esp) 70 74,
145 M Tullo (Chi) 73 72, B Hellgren (Swe) 71 74, P Whiteford (Sco) 73 72, C Blomstrand (Swe) 69 76, C Sordet (Fra) 74 71, S Walker (Eng) 75 70, A Pavan (Ita) 74 71, S Soderberg (Swe) 74 71, S Brown (Eng) 73 72,
146 A Velasco (Esp) 73 73, J Van Der Vaart (Ned) 72 74, J Lando Casanova (Fra) 76 70, J Shepherd (Eng) 78 68,
147 E Johansen (Nor) 71 76, G Migliozzi (Ita) 74 73,
151 C Mills (Wal) 77 74,
153 P Howard (Eng) 78 75,
154 P Dedek (Cze) 76 78, M Harradine (am) (Sui) 73 81,
156 S Piaget (Mon) 76 80,
** J Lara (Esp) RT 0
