Amateur Golf: North of Ireland qualifying and tournament round-up Munster Open champion Conor Doran put in a strong bid to add the Magners North of Ireland title to his honours list after leading the qualifiers last night at Royal Portrush.
Doran posted a 68 from the main Dunluce course after carding a similar score on the Valley on Monday. His aggregate of 136 was one shot better than his Banbridge colleague Rory Leonard, and two shots ahead of overnight leader Michael Sinclair of Knock, the 1997 winner.
Doran's four-under-par card showed five birdies and one dropped shot. A pitch and putt to one foot at the second hole for birdie four got him off to a good start, but he gave that shot back when he got a bad lie off the fourth tee
He then took it back again from the course with a superb birdie three at the seventh hole.
"I was just short of the green with a drive and two-iron into the wind, but I holed a putt from 40 feet, off the fringe," said Doran, who is aiming for a place in the Walker Cup panel next year.
Three birdies between the 11th and 14th holes gave Doran an inward run of 33 for his 68.
After a downhill nine-iron to 10 feet, he holed for a two at the 11th, and wedged to four feet for birdie three at 12.
Calamity Corner is always troublesome, but Doran pencilled in a rare birdie two there as he hammered a three-wood off the tee to 10 feet and slotted home the putt, before finishing with four straight pars.
Former finalist Leonard was round Dunluce in 69 blows - to add to his Valley 68 - with birdies at the second, eighth, 10th and 11th holes. But he dropped a stroke at the 14th to prevent him from tying with Doran.
Former international Sinclair took a two-over-par 74 yesterday to qualify on 138, the same as Limerick lad Cian McNamara.
Ex-titleholder Sinclair balanced a bogey at the seventh hole with a birdie at the 13th, but wrecked his card with a double-bogey six at Purgatory, the par-four 15th.
Probably the steadiest player in the field of 300 was Youth International reserve McNamara. He stormed off with back-to-back birdies and then pencilled in 16 pars to the final for a 70.
Stuart Paul's record of never having missed the cut in 15 visits to the championship ended yesterday as the former winner and last year's runner-up from Tandragee failed to match the mark.
Another former winner, Trevor Coulter of Massereene, also failed to qualify, leaving Sinclair the only previous titleholder still in the race.
Another casualty was Mark Campbell of Stackstown, who missed the 148 cut by two strokes.
Eight of the world's top 20 players head to Loch Lomond tomorrow for the first round of the Scottish Open, a tasty appetiser ahead of next week's British Open at Hoylake.
The Irish in the field are Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley, Graeme McDowell, Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane, Gary Murphy, David Higgins and Michael Hoey.
