McARTHUR, DOHERTY PUT IN GRANDSTAND FINISHES TO QUALIFY

By Michael Gibbons
European Tour Deputy Chief Press Officer
Andrew McArthur and Jack Doherty took the dramatic path to ensuring their weekend participation at the European Challenge Tour’s English Challenge.
With the cut mark moving to two under par, McArthur was thinking about the quickest way home to Glasgow with five holes to play as he stood on the 14th tee at the Stoke by Nayland Hotel, Golf and Spa in Essex on three over par.
But a sensational run for home saw the Scot birdie his last five holes to make the two under cut mark with nothing to spare.
Doherty, meanwhile, was also sweating on his weekend status as he stood on the ninth tee (his 18th hole of the day) at one under par. Five minutes later, after holing his second shot – a sand wedge from 129 yards – for an eagle 2, Doherty could breathe easy as he finished the day on three under.
Both men will have to continue that path if they are to have any chance of winning the €25,600 first prize on Sunday, with former World Amateur Number One Jamie Moul leading on nine under going into the weekend.
While McArthur and Doherty had hugely satisfying conclusions to their second rounds, there was disappointment for Scott Drummond and Craig Lee (one under), Gavin Dear and Callum Macaulay (one over) and Chris Doak (four over) who all missed the halfway cut.
There are not many professional golfers who can still lead a tournament after taking a quadruple bogey during their second rounds, but Jamie Moul did just that at the English Challenge after a roller coaster second round.
Moul, playing over his home course, certainly gave the huge crowd following him plenty of thrills and spills as he posted a one under par 71 to move to nine under par for the tournament and maintain his one stroke advantage over the field.
Starting on the tenth tee, the local boy flew out of the blocks with three birdies in his opening five holes to move three clear of the chasing pack.
At that point, Moul looked in the kind of form that could see him replicate his former Walker Cup team mate Rory McIlroy’s domineering US Open performance but he was stopped in his tracks when his ball came to rest in an ugly divot on the 17th fairway.
“It was going alright up until that point,” smiled Moul. “I was just trying to really dig the ball out of the divot but it came out horrible and flew way right and ended up six inches out of bounds. Naturally I tugged the next one into the bunker left at which point the head was off a little bit and I ended up with an 8.
“It took me a few holes to get my focus back but then I finished really nicely, birdieing three of my last four holes to get back into the lead which was a nice way to end a pretty strange day.
“At the start of the week I would have been delighted to be leading by one going into the weekend here so I have to put that one bad hole into perspective and keep playing the way I have done for the other 35 holes this week.
“I really up for the weekend and it feels great to be playing well in front of so many people who are giving me unbelievable support out there.”
The 26 year old will need that support to fend off a chasing pack that could see any one of the 64 players that made two under par cut mark. With just seven shots separating the entire weekend field, it is sure to be a thrilling weekend of golf at Stoke by Nayland.
Moul’s closest challengers – Martin Erlandsson, Jesus Legarrea and Alessandro Tadini – lead the chasing pack on eight under but the English Challenge trophy is still very much up for grabs with every man in the weekend field in with a great shout to take the title.
That is, providing Mr Moul keeps producing those roller coaster rounds…..

SECOND-ROUND TOTALS

Par 144 (2x72) Yardage 7,134

135 J Moul  (Eng) 64 71

136 A Tadini (Ita) 69 67, M Erlandsson (Swe) 69 67, J Legarrea (Esp) 68 68

137 A Otaegui  (Esp) 72 65, I Keenan (Eng) 69 68, B Hebert  (Fra) 71 66, A Snobeck  (Fra) 68 69, J Little  (Eng) 65 72, C Paisley  (Eng) 70 67, M Baldwin (Eng) 66 71

138 S Little (Eng) 71 67, C Suneson (Esp) 68 70, L Canter (Eng) 73 65, L Jensen (Den) 67 71, G Snow  (Ken) 69 69, M Laskey  (Wal) 69 69, V Riu  (Fra) 66 72, A Perrino  (Ita) 70 68, G Houston (Wal) 68 70, M Bothma (RSA) 70 68

139 T Fleetwood  (Eng) 70 69, M Lemesurier (Eng) 68 71, B Etchart  (Esp) 70 69, M Southgate  (Eng) 70 69, J Robinson (Eng) 68 71, F Colombo (Ita) 66 73, G Clark (Eng) 67 72, H Bacher (Aut) 72 67, D Lokke (Den) 69 70

140 J Heath  (Eng) 67 73, M Ford (Eng) 70 70, E Kofstad (Nor) 76 64, A Högberg (Swe) 68 72, N McCarthy  (Eng) 67 73, L Kennedy  (Eng) 70 70, K Eriksson (Swe) 67 73, J Garcia Pinto (Esp) 71 69, B Fowles (Eng) 70 70, F Valera (Esp) 69 71, A Bernadet  (Fra) 72 68

141 J Doherty  (Sco) 70 71, J Harris (Eng) 68 73, P Gustafsson (Swe) 68 73, D Whitnell  (Eng) 70 71, D Denison  (Eng) 71 70, A Marshall (Eng) 71 70, L Dodd  (Eng) 72 69, G Murphy (Irl) 74 67

142 C Moriarty (Irl) 71 71, R Kind (Ned) 72 70, C Gane (Eng) 73 69, F Delamontagne  (Fra) 66 76, B Barham (Eng) 71 71, R Hjelm (Den) 71 71, T Haylock  (Eng) 69 73, A McArthur  (Sco) 74 68, P Golding (Eng) 65 77, S Tiley (Eng) 72 70, D Brooks (Eng) 71 71, C Aronsen  (Nor) 73 69, P Dwyer (Eng) 72 70, A Domingo (Esp) 70 72, N Raymond (am) (Eng) 73 69

MISSED THE CUT

143 E Pepperell (Eng) 72 71, P Streeter (Eng) 71 72, C Russo (Fra) 73 70, J Guerrier  (Fra) 70 73, J Morgan  (Eng) 72 71, S Drummond (Sco) 71 72, C Lee (Sco) 71 72, F Calmels  (Fra) 70 73, G Lockerbie  (Eng) 72 71, C Lloyd (Eng) 73 70, S Fernandez (am) (Esp) 71 72

 144 R Santos  (Por) 70 74, T Leon (USA) 74 70, B Ritthammer (Ger) 74 70, N Kearney (Irl) 74 70, J Lima  (Por) 67 77, G Adell (Swe) 73 71, N Cheetham (Eng) 72 72, N Bertasio (Ita) 71 73, J Clément  (Sui) 71 73, M Evans (Eng) 70 74, J Billot (Fra) 71 73, A Hortal (am) (Esp) 69 75

145 C Hanson (Eng) 72 73, A Butterfield (Eng) 73 72, C Macaulay  (Sco) 73 72, J Garcia  (Esp) 72 73, T Whitehouse  (Eng) 70 75, A Bruschi  (Ita) 70 75, J Campillo (Esp) 73 72, A Willey (Eng) 71 74, W Besseling  (Ned) 76 69, M Stanford (Eng) 69 76, S Bebb (Wal) 73 72, M Lundberg (Swe) 73 72, P Del Grosso  (Arg) 76 69, J Grillon  (Fra) 69 76, D Wuensche  (Ger) 71 74, J Palmer (Eng) 72 73, B Åkesson (Swe) 71 74, G Dear (Sco) 73 72, J Howarth (Eng) 73 72

146 S Hutsby  (Eng) 75 71, P Archer (Eng) 70 76, G Shaw (Nir) 72 74, A Levy (Fra) 72 74, M Larsson  (Swe) 73 73, M Cryer (Eng) 74 72, J Hepworth (Eng) 72 74, G Jackson (Eng) 70 76, R Wallis (Eng) 72 74, B Evans  (Eng) 71 75, D Coupland (am) (Eng) 72 74

147 J Estevez  (Arg) 75 72, R Wingardh (Swe) 73 74, G Evans (Eng) 73 74, J Bevan (Eng) 73 74, T Ferreira  (RSA) 71 76, S Thornton (Irl) 73 74, C Ford (Eng) 73 74, A Ahokas (Fin) 72 75, J Van Der Vaart (Ned) 74 73, M Kieffer (Ger) 72 75, K Sullivan (Wal) 77 70

148 A Signor  (Ita) 72 76, J Quesne  (Fra) 75 73, E Dubois (Fra) 75 73, T Rice  (Irl) 73 75, C Doak (Sco) 74 74, F Svanberg  (Sui) 76 72

149 E Bertheussen (Nor) 75 74, G Cowan (Eng) 73 76, J Hedin (Swe) 74 75

150 A Hansen  (Den) 72 78, Z Xin-Jun (Chn) 77 73, J Abbate (Arg) 75 75, W Wei (Chn) 78 72, N Henriques  (Por) 71 79, B Hafthorsson (Isl) 76 74, M Palm (Swe) 78 72, M Cobo (Esp) 73 77

151 C Brazillier  (Fra) 70 81, A Pavan (Ita) 80 71, J Caldwell  (Nir) 78 73, M Delpodio  (Ita) 72 79, C Hinton (am) (Eng) 74 77

153 O Whiteley (Eng) 80 73, R De Sousa (Sui) 72 81, B Miarka (Ger) 78 75, G Watremez (Bel) 79 74

156 S Hackett (Irl) 79 77

 ** B Loughrey (am) (Eng) 76 WD,