Jonathan Caldwell’s second round 66 left him within three shots of leader Sam Horsfield at the Celtic Classic in Wales.
The 36-year-old from Bangor claimed a top-10 finish at the British Masters three weeks and will hope to improve on that over the weekend at Celtic Manor after carding five birdies and no bogeys on Friday to go into the weekend at eight under par.
For Cormac Sharvin a second round 67 leaves him on four under par and in a tie for 26th while Gavin Moynihan missed the cut after a round of 71 to finish at three over. Paul McGinley, playing on the circuit for the first time in over 20 months, will also miss the weekend after a second round 74.
At the top of the leaderboard Horsfield who is in pole position to claim his second European Tour title in the space of three weeks after a roller-coaster finish to his round.
Horsfield, who won the Hero Open at Hanbury Manor a fortnight ago, holed a bunker shot for a birdie on the 16th, ran up a triple bogey on the 17th and then eagled the last in a second round of 64.
At 11 under par, the Florida-based 23-year-old holds a one-shot lead over Belgium’s Thomas Pieters, with Andrew Johnston, Callum Shinkwin and Thomas Detry another stroke adrift on nine under.
Speaking about his five-wood approach to the 18th, Horsfield said: “It’s funny, we had the exact same number into 17 at Forest of Arden when I won so I hit the exact same shot and made the putt for eagle.
“The 17th was not great but I bounced back after that triple to get myself into a good position for tomorrow. I’ve been in contention, I know what the feelings are like and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Overnight leader Pieters, who is playing his first event for five months due to the coronavirus pandemic and the birth of his first child in July, added a 68 to his opening 64 despite finding the water with his approach to the 18th.
Johnston recovered from a nightmare start to his second round to add a 66 to his opening 67 thanks to a blistering finish at the 2010 Ryder Cup venue.
The 31-year-old ran up a triple-bogey seven on the first and dropped another shot on the fifth, but then birdied three of the next four holes and covered the back nine in just 29 shots with an eagle and four more birdies.
“Yesterday (Thursday) evening I wasn’t happy the way I was hitting the ball, spent an hour and a half on the range and just said to myself, ‘I’ve tried everything let’s just play and see what happens,‘” Johnston said.
“If I play good, great, if I don’t so be it. I know I’m doing the right things, it’s just a matter of patience that just freed me up and let me play.
“It’s still not quite right. Sometimes you can not play your best and score really well but I don’t want to rest on that, I want to improve on the weekend with my ball-striking.”
Shinkwin, who collapsed to a closing 81 in the English Championship on Sunday, carded seven birdies and one bogey in a 65 and said: “I’m very happy to be fair.
“I had a bit of a bad round last week on the Sunday and my game just went wrong. I had a couple of days off to recover and on Wednesday I was just working hard on my game. I did everything that I needed to do correctly, everything went right and I didn’t really make any poor swings either.”
Collated European Tour Celtic Classic, The Celtic Manor Resort, City of Newport, Wales (British unless stated, par 71):
131 Sam Horsfield 67 64
132 Thomas Pieters (Bel) 64 68
133 Andrew Johnston 67 66, Callum Shinkwin 68 65, Thomas Detry (Bel) 67 66
134 Matthew Jordan 68 66, Jake McLeod (Aus) 65 69, Jonathan Caldwell (NIrl) 68 66, Sean Crocker (USA) 68 66
135 Sebastian Soderberg (Swe) 66 69, Connor Syme 68 67, Rhys Enoch 69 66, Nacho Elvira (Spa) 66 69
136 Wil Besseling (Ned) 67 69, Sihwan Kim (Kor) 66 70, Guido Migliozzi (Ita) 66 70, Jordan Smith 68 68, Adrian Otaegui (Spa) 69 67, John Catlin (USA) 68 68
137 Adrian Meronk (Pol) 66 71, Wilco Nienaber (Rsa) 70 67, Matthew Southgate 67 70, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 67 70, James Morrison 67 70, Aaron Rai 67 70
138 Cormac Sharvin (NIrl) 71 67, Oscar Lengden (Swe) 69 69, Francesco Laporta (Ita) 69 69, Jason Scrivener (Aus) 69 69, Joel Sjoholm (Swe) 68 70, Marc Warren 66 72, Calum Hill 70 68, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 66 72, Scott Vincent (Zim) 69 69
139 Steven Brown 67 72, Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 69 70, Damien Perrier (Fra) 70 69, Sebastian Heisele (Ger) 69 70, David Horsey 68 71, Martin Simonsen (Den) 68 71, Dean Burmester (Rsa) 71 68, Maverick Antcliff (Aus) 68 71, Dale Whitnell 72 67, Jack Senior 69 70, Sami Valimaki (Fin) 71 68, Justin Walters (Rsa) 70 69, Aaron Cockerill (Can) 70 69, Gavin Green (Mal) 70 69, Louis De Jager (Rsa) 71 68
140 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 70 70, Justin Harding (Rsa) 69 71, Ross Fisher 72 68, Toby Tree 65 75, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 69 71, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 67 73, Grant Forrest 72 68, Ashley Chesters 72 68, Scott Hend (Aus) 75 65, Ben Stow 68 72, Jamie Donaldson 70 70, Min Woo Lee (Aus) 69 71, Oliver Farr 73 67, Ross McGowan 70 70, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 71 69
141 Adri Arnaus (Spa) 73 68, Alexander Bjork (Swe) 71 70, Carlos Pigem (Spa) 70 71, Rikard Karlberg (Swe) 73 68, Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa) 70 71, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 70 71, Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 71 70, Julian Suri (USA) 72 69, Andy Sullivan 70 71, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den) 71 70, Bernd Ritthammer (Ger) 71 70
The following players missed the cut:
142 Jens Fahrbring (Swe) 70 72, Richie Ramsay 69 73, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 71 71, Joost Luiten (Ned) 72 70, Dave Coupland 67 75, Lee Slattery 71 71
143 Robin Roussel (Fra) 70 73, Clement Sordet (Fra) 72 71, Antoine Rozner (Fra) 72 71, Eduardo De La Riva (Spa) 72 71, Mathieu Fenasse (Fra) 71 72, Chris Paisley 72 71, Renato Paratore (Ita) 74 69
144 Kurt Kitayama (USA) 70 74, Nicolai Von Dellingshausen (Ger) 70 74, Lorenzo Scalise (Ita) 71 73, Anton Karlsson (Swe) 69 75, Kristoffer Reitan (Nor) 71 73, Garrick Porteous 75 69, Brandon Stone (Rsa) 71 73, Oliver Fisher 70 74, Emilio Cuartero Blanco (Spa) 69 75, Jbe Kruger (Rsa) 70 74, Bryce Easton (Rsa) 70 74
145 Gavin Moynihan (Irl) 74 71, Stephen Dodd 75 70, Niklas Lemke (Swe) 74 71, Nicolai Hojgaard (Den) 70 75
146 Lucas Bjerregaard (Den) 78 68, Liam Johnston 77 69, JC Ritchie (Rsa) 75 71, Oliver Wilson 77 69, Benjamin Poke (Den) 74 72, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 69 77, Scott Jamieson 71 75
147 Marcus Armitage 75 72, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 78 69, Jorge Campillo (Spa) 72 75, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 70 77, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 70 77
148 Richard Bland 75 73, Ben Evans 76 72, Laurie Canter 74 74, Stephen Gallacher 73 75, Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 73 75, Matthew Baldwin 73 75
149 Johannes Veerman (USA) 72 77, Paul McGinley (Irl) 75 74
150 Darius Van Driel (Ned) 75 75, Steven Tiley 75 75
151 David Howell 80 71, Lars Van Meijel (Ned) 75 76, Marcel Schneider (Ger) 72 79
152 Andrew Palmer 75 77
161 Andrea Pavan (Ita) 79 82
166 Zack Murrary (Aus) 79 87
