Luke Joy

Joy for Luke as he shares second-round 

lead on MENA Tour

RIYADH — England’s Luke Joy fired a course-record 64 to join Gabriel Canizares atop the leaderboard heading into the final round of the MENA Golf Tour’s American Express Dirab Golf Championship on Tuesday.

Starting the day, a good four shots behind, Joy rattled off one eagle and seven birdies, including five on the front nine, against a lone bogey to reach nine-under for the tournament along with joint overnight leader Gabriel Canizares of Spain, who carded a second round 70. 

England’s Craig Hinton, who shared the opening day’s lead with Canizares, sits alone in second place a further shot adrift as Spain’s Mariano Ochoa and Thriston Arthur Lawrence of South Africa moved into a tie for the fourth at six-under, one shot ahead of England’s talented amateur James Allan.

It was Joy, a two-time winner on the MENA Golf Tour who made the biggest charge of the day, putting himself in pole position for a shot at the title. A change of putter did the trick for the Englishman as he started with a great birdie at the first which kind of set the tone for his almost a flawless round.

“Of all the seven birdies, the one on the first was quite pleasing as I holed a nice putt from 20 feet,” said Joy, who bettered the previous course record of a 66 jointly held by Pakistan Shafiq Masih, Craig Smith of Wales and Ian Keenan of England.

LEADING SECOND-ROUND SCORES

Par 144 (2x72)

135 Luke Joy (England) 71 64; Gabriel Canizares (Spain) 65 70

136 Craig Hinton (England) 65 71

138 Mariano Ochoa (Spain) 70 68; Lawrence Thriston  (South Africa) 70 68

139 James Allan (England) (amateur) 68 71

140 Xavier Puig (Spain) 69 71; Sixto Casabona-Navarro (Spain) 71 69; Elliott Oxlade (England) (am) 69 71; Carlos Balmaseda (Spain)  73 67

142 Joe Heraty (England) 73 69; Chris McDonnell (England) 70 72; Fredrik Lindblom (Sweden) 71 71

143 Shafiq Masih (Pakistan) 72 71; Ayoub Lguirati (Morocco) 69 74