Clandeboye’s Jonny Caldwell produced another sub-70 score to remain in contention as Paul Dunne made his first cut for 312 days in the Betfred British Masters at Close House.

Back on the European Tour this season after an 11-year absence, Caldwell (36) recovered from a bogey-bogey start added a 69 to his opening 67 to go into the third round tied for 13th on six-under, just five shots behind pace-setter Renato Paratore of Italy.

Scores

Dunne (27) is playing in his first event since he was forced to miss the Q-School with a wrist injury that required surgery nine months ago.

But he showed no signs on nerves on the final hole as he closed with a solid par-four to follow an opening 71 with a one-under-par 70 to make the cut on the mark on one-under.

Winner of the British Masters when it was last played at Close House in 2017, the Wicklowman picked up two shots on his front nine and while he was occasionally wayward from the tee, he made his way through the cut mark for the first time since he tied for 27th in the KLM Open 10 months ago.

Paratore (23) went bogey-free for the second day running, adding a 66 to his opening 65 to lead by a shot from South African Justin Harding and England's Dale Whitnell. 

Scotland's Calum Hill, David Law and Denmark's Rasmus Højgaard share fourth on nine-under with Ashley Chesters while Eddie Pepperell was back in a tie for 13th with the likes of Caldwell after his 69.

Host Lee Westwood made the cut on the number after an untidy 74, but there was no luck for Cormac Sharvin or Gavin Moynihan.

Sharvin was two-under for the day and just a shot outside the cut mark with four holes to go but then went bogey-birdie-bogey at the 15th, 16th and 17th and added a 70 to his opening 73 to miss out by two strokes.

Moynihan also opened with a 73, but he bogeyed his first two holes in the second round and saw his hopes dashed when he triple-bogeyed the sixth and double-bogeyed the par-three ninth, carding a 76 to finish on seven-over.

Dunne is not yet in the field for next week’s Hero Open at the Marriott Forest of Arden — he’s fourth reserve. But he will be seeking at least a top-10 spot so he can continue his comeback from injury and potentially challenging for one of ten places in the US Open at Winged Foot that will be available through a mini order of merit over the next five weeks.

Paratore, who is seeking a second European Tour title after his maiden win in Sweden three years ago, made gains at the first and 14th, as well as picking up birdies at all three par fives on the course – his pitch for eagle on the 17th stopping inches short of the cup.

Harding came storming out of the blocks with four birdies in his first five holes and added further gains at the seventh, ninth, 16th and 17th in a best of the week round of 63. Meanwhile, Whitnell also kept a clean card, recording five birdies as well as an eagle on the 17th in his round of 64.

England's Ashley Chesters, Dane Rasmus Højgaard and Scottish pair Calum Hill and round one leader David Law are one shot further back on nine under par, with another Englishman in Oliver Fisher and New Zealand’s Ryan Fox at eight under par.

Tournament host Westwood made the cut on one under par following his second round 71, as did evergreen Spaniard Miguel Angel Jiménez, who is three under par at the halfway stage of his record-equalling 706th European Tour appearance.

Renato Paratore – 65, 66 (-11)

It felt really good today. I played really solid, especially the short game. I saved some shots when I needed it, so I'm very happy my game. It wasn't so different to yesterday – always rain! The wind was less today. Yesterday was windy and rainy so today was better.  I'm going to rest and do some exercise in the room because you can't go to the gym. It's obviously a different atmosphere without the crowd but I'm just delighted to be back out playing again. I like to play every week so for me it's great being back. During the restrictions you just have to accept it. I tried to stay in good shape physically. I did not practise much technically but I just worked every day on the physical aspect.

Justin Harding (RSA) - 69, 63 (-10) 

It was pretty good, I'm still trying to figure out the golf course to be fair, it's got a lot of awkwardness about it with all of the elevation changes. I'm a low ball hitter, so a few of the ones up the hill cause a bit of an issue. The biggest thing today was that I made a couple of putts. I rolled in a good three to start the day out and just rolled with it from there. I like to regard myself as a good putter so when they do start to go in I feel like I can get going and post a decent score. I kind of hung in there around the stretch - 11 and 12 were playing a bit tricky - but ultimately I was just trying to give myself a few more chances coming down. It's obviously where we want to be starting the week. I've put myself there now and it's just a matter of getting through tomorrow and then giving myself the chance on what would be Sunday, is now Saturday.  There are a lot of good players in the field, it's a golf course which lends itself to a lot of birdies. If you can keep the bogeys off the card - and I think that was the most pleasing thing about today that I didn't make any. If I can keep going and see what happens, who knows. 

 Dale Whitnell – 68, 64 (-10)

No bogeys through 36 holes helps. I've been working hard on my game, practicing hard and this course suits me, it's a little bit fiddly in places, you have to leave yourself at the rights side of the greens because if you don't you are screwed. I've been making sure that my practice has been more focussed in certain parts, putting different kinds of time into different places with my game, really getting out what I'm putting into it. I'm just trying to go about my business like I normally would, I'm not trying to play it up just because it's European Tour and it it's good enough, it's good enough, if it's not, it's not. I wasn't expecting to go bogey-free on one day, let alone two. But I've been playing well, through lockdown I've worked hard – it's actually been a good lesson for me because I had been struggling with my golf swing and I've worked hard with my coach Craig Lockwood at home, and that's massively paid off. I was struggling with my swing and wasn't focussed before lockdown. I played six events on the European Tour and only made one cut. I just wasn't very confident, the lockdown has actually helped me and I've scheduled my practice a bit better, and that's really helped. I try not to think about the leaderboard. That's something I've been working on, mentally it's difficult but the more I'm in these positions the easier it will become. It's a good start.

Betfred British Masters hosted by Lee Westwood, Close House (Par 71)

Prize fund: €1,250,000

Scores

131 R Paratore (Ita) 65 66,

132 D Whitnell (Eng) 68 64, J Harding (RSA) 69 63,

133 D Law (Sco) 64 69, R Hojgaard (Den) 66 67, A Chesters (Eng) 67 66, C Hill (Sco) 67 66,

134 O Fisher (Eng) 65 69, R Fox (Nzl) 67 67,

135 P Figueiredo (Por) 66 69, B Stow (Eng) 67 68, R Rock (Eng) 69 66,

136 G Porteous (Eng) 65 71, Jonny Caldwell (Nir) 67 69, E Pepperell (Eng) 67 69, M Jordan (Eng) 68 68, C Sordet (Fra) 69 67, T Tree (Eng) 69 67,

137 A Cockerill (Can) 66 71, J Singh Brar (Eng) 67 70, J Fahrbring (Swe) 68 69, A Sullivan (Eng) 68 69, A Meronk (Pol) 69 68, L Van Meijel (Ned) 69 68, R Roussel (Fra) 69 68, J Winther (Den) 70 67,

138 P Larrazabal (Esp) 67 71, J Smith (Eng) 69 69, M Kinhult (Swe) 69 69, A Quiros (Esp) 69 69, L Canter (Eng) 70 68, B Poke (Den) 70 68, G Havret (Fra) 70 68, A Otaegui (Esp) 73 65,

139 M Jimenez (Esp) 68 71, R Bland (Eng) 69 70, J McLeod (Aus) 69 70, A Rai (Eng) 69 70, R Karlberg (Swe) 69 70, D Horsey (Eng) 70 69, J Scrivener (Aus) 70 69, A Arnaus (Esp) 70 69, S Jamieson (Sco) 70 69, N Elvira (Esp) 71 68, A Rozner (Fra) 72 67,

140 L Slattery (Eng) 66 74, A Bjork (Swe) 68 72, J Veerman (USA) 69 71, R Ramsay (Sco) 69 71, J Hansen (Den) 70 70, M Southgate (Eng) 70 70, N Lemke (Swe) 70 70, S Horsfield (Eng) 70 70, H Porteous (RSA) 71 69, M Korhonen (Fin) 71 69, G Storm (Eng) 71 69, M Pavon (Fra) 71 69, D Huizing (Ned) 73 67,

141 S Crocker (USA) 67 74, S Vincent (Zim) 69 72, A Pavan (Ita) 69 72, D Coupland (Eng) 70 71, G Forrest (Sco) 70 71, R Langasque (Fra) 70 71, L Westwood (Eng) 70 71, J Senior (Eng) 71 70, G Migliozzi (Ita) 71 70, B Stone (RSA) 71 70, Paul Dunne (Irl) 71 70, G Fdez-Castano (Esp) 72 69,

CUT

142 J Sjoholm (Swe) 68 74, A Willey (Eng) 70 72, R Fisher (Eng) 70 72, W Besseling (Ned) 70 72, C Pigem (Esp) 71 71, N Hojgaard (Den) 72 70, S Kjeldsen (Den) 72 70, S Brown (Eng) 72 70, B Evans (Eng) 73 69, T Bjorn (Den) 73 69, D Howell (Eng) 74 68,

143 R Enoch (Wal) 68 75, S Kim (USA) 68 75, A Saddier (Fra) 68 75, L De Jager (RSA) 69 74, T Detry (Bel) 70 73, M Kieffer (Ger) 70 73, M Antcliff (Aus) 70 73, B Easton (RSA) 72 71, E Molinari (Ita) 72 71, K Samooja (Fin) 72 71, C Paisley (Eng) 72 71, J Guerrier (Fra) 73 70, Cormac Sharvin (Nir) 73 70, B Gill (Eng) 74 69, T Pulkkanen (Fin) 74 69, R Santos (Por) 75 68,

144 J Donaldson (Wal) 69 75, S Hend (Aus) 69 75, R McEvoy (Eng) 70 74, P Lawrie (Sco) 71 73, M Armitage (Eng) 71 73, C Syme (Sco) 72 72, Z Lombard (RSA) 72 72,

145 C Fyfe (Sco) 72 73, M Kawamura (Jpn) 73 72, D Burmester (RSA) 73 72, D Van Driel (Ned) 73 72, R Jacquelin (Fra) 73 72, J Suri (USA) 73 72, C Shinkwin (Eng) 73 72, R Sciot-Siegrist (Fra) 76 69,

146 A Levy (Fra) 70 76, L Scalise (Ita) 73 73, M Lee (Aus) 73 73, F Laporta (Ita) 73 73, O Farr (Wal) 74 72, O Wilson (Eng) 75 71,

147 J Morrison (Eng) 70 77, E De La Riva (Esp) 73 74, S Garcia Rodriguez (Esp) 74 73, E Ferguson (Sco) 76 71, A Canizares (Esp) 77 70, D Drysdale (Sco) 78 69,

148 M Campbell (Nzl) 68 80, J Walters (RSA) 72 76,

149 Gavin Moynihan (Irl) 73 76, S Valimaki (Fin) 75 74,

155 M Bullen (Eng) 75 80, M Warren (Sco) 78 77,

** Out J Levermore (Eng) 75 Wd, A Johnston (Eng) Rt