O'Driscoll and Donnelly remain in Alps Tour hunt
Tommy O;Driscoll (left) with his brother Eamonn
Tommy O’Driscoll and Luke Donnelly remain on track but Eamonn O’Driscoll and Declan Loftus are out of the running for full cards after they missed the 36-hole cut at the Alps Tour Q-School in Spain.
Representing Golf Clément Ader, Alps Tour regular O’Driscoll made four birdies and two bogeys in a fine, two under 70 on the Asia Course at La Cala to jump 55 places to tied 22nd in the race to finish in the top 35 and ties who will be awarded full cards following Saturday’s third and final round.
At two over par, O’Driscoll is nine strokes behind Antoine Rozner of France who shot a five under 67 on the Asia Course to lead by one stroke on nine under par from compatriot Baptiste Chapellan.
With the top 35 and ties on four over or better, 19-year old Kilkenny amateur Donnelly as work to do to win his card after carding a four over 76 on the Asia Course to slip two shots outside the mark on six over,
He made the cut on the mark, which means he will have a Category 8 card at worst.
As for Eamonn O’Driscoll and Loftus, will have the new, Category 9 status, giving them some starts in 2017.
Eamonn had five birdies in a level par 72 to miss out by two shots and was left to regret a 10 on Thursday and three bogeys and a double in round two.
As fror Castlebar’s Loftus, he signed for an 80 on the Asia Course to miss out on 14 over par.
As for the leaders, Rozner, graduated from University of Missouri last June and is happy with his progress this week.
He told AlpsTourGolf.com’s Agathe Séron:
“I did not have any goals, what matters is to do the best you can on each shot and each hole. I know that when I play well, I can do what I want with the ball. I know that I can win a tournament any time so I do my best to stay very focussed during the round and see how much I shot at the end.
“Before the round, I work on a strategy. My routine is very precise and I stick to it on every shot to stay in the same pace. Today and yesterday, I kept on doing this and it worked really well. I didn’t miss lots of shots and it is very important here.”
Chapellan, 29, graduated from the Alps Tour in 2009 but lost his card after five full seasons on Challenge Tour.
While he felt he needed a break after suffering multiple hand injuries and poor form, the Bordeaux player is now fully motivated to get back on tour.
“The goal is to get the best category possible here to be able to play as many tournaments as possible,” he said. “I have been training a lot for the past year, I did not play many tournaments, that was ok but in 2017, I will play a lot.”
