McKechnie, Currie lead Scots in chase for 

£10,000 prize at Mar Hall

A total of 15 Scots, headed by Paul McKechnie (Braid Hills) and Chris Currie (Caldwell), survived the second-round cut to the leading 50 and ties in this week's PGA EuroPro Tour event, the Glenfarclas Open over 54 holes at Mar Hall, Bishopton near Glasgow.
McKechnie (66-68) and Currie (69-65) are lying joint second on six-under 134, only two shots behind the Wolverhampton-based leader, Aaron Rai.
They are definitely in with a shout of scooping the £10,000 first prize.
LEADING SCORES
Par 140 (2x70)
132 A Rai (Eng) 64 68
134 M Haines (Eng) 68 66,  C Currie (Caldwell) 69 65, P McKechnie (Braid Hills) 66 68
135 C Hinton (Eng) 65570, D Gavins (Eng) 71 64.

OTHER SCOTS' SCORES
137 S Binning 70 67 (T8)
138 N Fernwick 68 70, Shaun McAllister 70 68 (T14)
139 M Stewart 69 70 (T18)
140 J McColl 69 71, P Shilds 781 69 (T22)
141 S Kiloh 73 68, Z Saltman 69 72, D Kay 70 71 (T27)
142 R Cameron 70 72 (T36)
143 G McBain 68 75, S Crichton 70 73, L Saltman 68 75, F McKenna 74 69 (T49). 
MISSED THE CUT (143 and better qualified for final round)
144 P Robinson 74 70
145 K Duncan 73 72, C O'Neil 72 73, M Hillson 71 74
147 M Patterson 73 74, J Findlay 75 72, P Doherty 70 77
148 G Hay 782 767, N Henderson 74 74
149 C Macaulay 77 72
150 K Nicol 75 75, C Smith 78 72
151 J Duff 78 73, S Borrowman 74 77
152 G O'Neill 76 76, I Redford 77 75
153 A Forsyth 76 77, P McLean 74 79, M Isaacs 77 76
155 C Lawrie 78 77
156 R Bell 78 78
157 J Steven 74 83
Retired: C Doak 71 ret, G Forbes 68 ret. 

RAI TWO CLEAR AT MAR HALL

By NICK TEALE

Aaron Rai will take a two-shot lead into the final round of the HotelPlanner.com PGA EuroPro Tour’s Glenfarclas Open at Mar Hall.

The Wolverhampton golfer carded a six-under-par 64 for his opening round and signed for a 68 on Thursday to move eight under, two clear of Scottish duo Chris Currie and Paul McKechnie and Englishman Matthew Haines.

Rai (DCD Group) made nine pars on the front nine before a birdie at the 10^th took him to seven under. Four more pars followed before he made it eight under at the 15^th and he played the final three holes without dropping a shot to take a two-stroke overnight lead.

An unblemished five-under-par second round took Currie (Caldwell Golf Club) to six under and a share of second. He birdied the first before making nine consecutive pars. He came home four under to surge up the leaderboard ahead of Friday’s final round.

His fellow Scot McKechnie (Braid Hills Golf Club), a previous winner on the EuroPro, carded a second-round 68 on the par-70 Earl of Mar Course for a share of second. He made six birdies but was held back by four bogeys.

Haines (Rochester and Cobham Golf Club) moved from two under at the start of the day to six under by the end. 

After parring the 1^st and bogeying 2 he made eagle at the par-four 3^rd. However, he was soon back to level on his card after another bogey came at the 4^th. Four pars and a birdie at 6 completed the front nine and coming home he found trouble at the 11^th, where he made five, but a run of four birdies on the last six holes saw him to second place.

Heavy overnight rain is forecast at Mar Hall, but leader Rai is unfazed by any change in weather conditions.

“I will put some waterproofs on but otherwise I will pretty much approach the final round the same as the previous two,” he said. “I will take the same strategy and hopefully I can play well again.

“This is my third year playing this course now and I always enjoy coming back to it.

“Yesterday was pretty steady, no dropped shots and I was hitting it pretty well tee to green to give myself some good opportunities and it was nice to take a few.

“Today conditions were a little harder and I didn’t quite get the same amount of opportunities. But when I missed the greens I always get up and down and it was nice to remain bogey-free for the 36 holes so far.”

The Glenfarclas Open is a 54-hole strokeplay event. A cut to the leading 50 players plus ties has now been made with all those three over par or better proceeding to play Friday’s final round, which will be filmed for a two-hour highlights show to be aired on Sky Sports on Tuesday, July 28. Spectator entry is free throughout and live scoring can be found at www.europrotour.com.