Senior British Open: Zimbabwean born Mark McNulty, now competing as an Irish citizen, was one of only two players to break 70 on a difficult second day of the Senior British Open and with that effort he moved into a share of the halfway lead at Royal Portrush yesterday.
The 50-year-old has competed as an Irishman since last November after years of ongoing problems under the Mugabe dictatorship in his homeland, one of which was the continual restriction he faced when trying to renew his Zimbabwean passport.
"I was eligible for Irish citizenship because my grandmother's side of the family come from Ballymena," said McNulty, who also took time out after his first round to explore his Irish roots in Ballymena.
"It feels great to compete here in Ireland for the first time since gaining citizenship, and especially nice this week as Ballymena is just down the road."
McNulty stormed out of the blocks with birdies on the opening two holes before carding three more to be clear leader on five under by the time he stood on the 16th tee. The downside came with two bogeys in the last three holes and he had to settle for a 69.
"I was obviously disappointed to finish with three fives but if somebody said to me before I went out that I was going to shoot 69, I would have been delighted given the squally conditions," said McNulty, who won on his Champions Tour debut at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-am in Florida in February.
He shares the lead with the US duo Don Pooley (72) and Peter Oakley (68) and England's Carl Mason (71).
Des Smyth's campaign took a severe dent with a quadruple-bogey eight at the seventh but the Irishman battled for a 76 to be six over. "The eight really spoiled my day, I tried to play safe from a pulled drive, lost a six iron left. When found, it was unplayable and with nowhere to drop I had to go back and play the shot again," said Smyth, who said he's played better than his scoring suggests this week.
Smyth's woes were nowhere near as severe as Gary Player's over the Dunluce links. The 68-year-old's week ended prematurely when he shot 90, his worst score of a long, illustrious career.
Two former Ryder Cup captains, Mark James and Tom Kite, played their way into contention. "Jesse" shot 70, one better than his playing partner, and both are only a shot behind on two under alongside Scotland's Bill Longmuir (71).
Eamonn Darcy failed to make a birdie all today and had to settle for a 76 to be five over. Denis O'Sullivan also made the cut after a 75 left him seven over, one better than Fintona's Paul Leonard (78). They completed the set of five Irishmen who made the cut, which fell at nine over.
Neither defending champion Tom Watson nor pre-tournament favourite Eduardo Romero got to grips with the conditions as they shot 74 and 75 respectively. It left Watson five over while Romero remains dangerous on level par.
