McNicoll, Law, McLean and

Paterson beat Portugal cut

Only four Scots - Carnoustie's Keir McNicoll, Greg Paterson (St Andrews New) and two Paul Lawrie proteges David Law (Aberdeen Hazlehead) and Peterhead's Philip McLean - survived the two-round cut in the Portuguese men's open amateur golf championship at Troia Golf Resort near Lisbon.
Morning fog delayed play so much on Thursday and Friday that the second round was not completed until Saturday afternoon. By that time the organisers had decided to cut the scheduled 72-hole tournament to only three rounds.
A total of 57 players with 36-hole tallies of six-over-par 150 or better will contest the third and final round on Sunday.
St Andrews Links Trophy winner McNicoll, pictured above by Cal Carson Golf Agency, heads the Scots qualifiers with scores of 74 and 71 for 145 - eight shots behind Dutchman leader Jurrian Van der Vaart who scored 68 and 69 for seven-under-par 137, excellent scoring on what is rated one of the toughest courses in Portugal.
Teenager Law had Saturday off because he completed his rounds of 77 and 70 for 147 on Friday.
Paterson and McLean made the cut with nothing to spare. Paterson, under pressure after an opening 79, birdied the seventh, eighth and 10th to put himself inside the cut mark - and then grittily parred the last eight holes for a 71 and the limit mark of 150.
McLean, despite a double bogey 6 at the eighth, had shots in hand until he bogeyed the 16th and 18th for a 74 and 150.
Wallace Booth (Comrie) and Gavin Dear (Murrayshall), two of Scotland's Eisenhower Trophy-winning trio (rookie pro Calum Macaulay was the third) missed the cut by one shot.

Booth doubled bogeyed the 16th and bogeyed the 17th for a second-round 74 and 151. Dear lost the plot with a double bogey at the fifth and single bogeys at the eighth, ninth, 12th and 16th. A birdie at the 18th was too little too late for a 76 and 151.
Other Scots non-qualifiers were Steve McEwan (Caprington) on 152 with a pair of 76s, Paul O'Hara (Colville Park) on 153 with 80 and 73, and Scott Borrowman (Dollar) with a horrendous first round of 83 followed by a creditable 72 for 155.

Van der Vaart leads on 137 by one shot from Englishman Sam Hutsby and Norway's Anders Kristiansen. Dale Whitenell, in fourth place on 139, gives England two players in the top four. The defending champion, Portugal's Pedro Figueiredo, is in fifth place on 141.
SECOND ROUND TOTALS
Par 144 (2 x 72)
137 Jurrian Van der Vaart (Net) 68 69.
138 Sam Hutsby (Eng) 72 66, Anders Kristiansen (Nor) 70 68.
139 Dale Whitnell (Eng) 71 68.
141 Pedro Figueiredo (Por) 69 72.
142 Jamie Abbott (Eng) 73 69, Luke Goddard (Eng) 72 70, Reinier Saxton (Net) 72 70.
144 Leonarda Motta (Ita) 73 71, Oliver Farr (Wal) 75 69, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 73 71.
145 Kalle Samooja (Fin) 75 70, Edouard Espana (Fra) 79 66, Keir McNicoll (Sco) 74 71, Cian Curley (Ire) 74 71, Ben Westgate (Wal) 72 73, Stanislas Gautier (Fra) 72 73, Eddie Pepperell (Eng) 72 73, Tommy Fleetwood (Eng) 70 75.
146 Paul Cutler (Ire) 73 73, Romain Schneider (Fra) 70 76, Manuel Alexandre Violas (Por) 75 71, Shane Lowry (Ire) 75 71.
147 David Law (Sco) 77 70, Craig Hinton (Eng) 75 72, Darren Wright (Eng) 77 70, Erwan Vieilledent (Fra) 74 73, Adam Runcie (Wal) 75 72, Alexandre Kaleka (Fra) 76 71, Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 76 71, Miles Mackman (Eng) 72 75, Wolters Stephan (Ger) 74 73, Miguel Gaspar (Por) 74 73.
148 Christopher Mivis (Bel) 78 70, Jason Barnes (Eng) 77 71, Dylan Boshart (Net) 75 73, Luke Lennox (Ire) 73 75, Michael Salminen (Fin) 75 73, Olivier Serres (Fra) 74 74, Alexandre Levy (Fra) 76 72, James Taverner (Eng) 75 73, Mayel Cheikh (Fra) 73 75, Stiggy Hodgson (Eng) 73 75,
149 Billy Hemstock (Eng) 75 74, Richard Merchant (Wal) 76 73, Julien Brun (Fra) 74 75, Elias Bertheussen (Nor) 77 72,
150 Greg Paterson (Sco) 79 71, Andrew Hogan (Ire) 75 75, Kevin Turlan (Fra) 71 79, Jacob Roth (Den) 75 75, Floris de Vries (Net) 75 75, Are Friestad (Nor) 77 73, Philip McLean (Sco) 76 74, Niclas Carlsson (Swe) 75 75, Jake Shepherd (Eng) 75 75
MISSED THE CUT (150 or better qualified)
151 James Howie (Wal) 80 71, Jonathan Gidney (Eng) 79 72, Ricardo Melo Gouveia (Por) 77 74, Gavin Dear (Sco) 75 76, Goncalo Pinto (Por) 75 76, Romain Wattel (Fra) 73 78, Todd Adcock (Eng) 78 73, Wallace Booth (Sco) 77 74, Dara Lernihan (Ire) 77 74, Tom Lewis (Eng) 76 75, Max Glauert (Ger) 75 76, Marcel Schneider (Ger) 75 76, Andre Chiapuzzo (Ita) 75 76, Jose Maria Joia (Por) 74 77, Robin Kind (Net) 73 78, Oskar Ardvidsson (Swe) 73 78.
Selected non-qualifiers:
152 Richard Prophet (Eng) 77 75, Steven McEwan (Sco) 76 76.
153 Paul O'Hara (Sco) 80 73, Alan Dunbar (Ire) 78 75, Pat Murray (Ire) 76 77.
155 Scott Borrowman (Sco) 84 71, Jack Senior (Eng) 80 75.
156 James Webber (Eng) 78 78
158 Andy Sullivan (Eng) 76 82.