Jamie Donaldson remained on course to secure his place in the European Ryder Cup team with a 69 in the second round of the Czech Masters yesterday.
The Welshman held the overnight lead after shooting a 66 on the first day and he maintained a one-shot advantage at the top of the leaderboard on nine under at the halfway point of the tournament.
Donaldson currently holds the eighth of nine automatic places for the team in Gleneagles due to his position on the world points list, but he is the only person who can still qualify via the European list as well.
To do that he needs a combined winning haul of just under €30,000 in the Czech Republic and in Italy next week, with a win in Prague netting the victor €166,660.
And qualification via the European places would give the 38-year-old some breathing space, with Graeme McDowell, Luke Donald and Ian Poulter – all in action at the Barclays in New Jersey this week – and Stephen Gallacher battling it out for a place via the world list.
Another week
"It's there," Donaldson said when asked about the Ryder Cup. "It's been there for a while but this is just another week where you're out there just playing as well as you can. You've got to make as many birdies as possible and contend to win the tournament.
“There are those things to play for no matter whether you’re at the top of the Order of Merit (Race to Dubai) or the bottom, those things are in the back of your mind that you know you’ve got to play well to get into.”
Kevin Phelan is best of the Irish on three-under after a 69, two ahead of Damien McGrane (70), Gareth Maybin (72) and Peter Lawrie (72).
All three made the cut, set at level par, but Ruaidhri McGee, the Donegal man well -placed after a first round of 70, missed the cut after a 75 left him one over. Simon Thornton shot the same score to suffer the same fate on one over, while David Higgins (70) was two over, thanks largely to a first round of 76.
Stephen Gallacher, who is relying on world points to make Paul McGinley’s team, did his chances no harm either with a second-round 67 which left him just two shots behind Donaldson, and the Scot admits he is desperate to tee it up on home soil.
“It’s the down time when you tend to think about it,” he said. “When you fly into Edinburgh airport and there’s a sign 100 foot by 100 foot and you live half an hour from it. You know it’s there, you’ve been trying all year to get into it, so it’s just a case of trying to do well the next two weeks and see it through.”
Starting on the back nine, Donaldson birdied the 12th but gave the shot straight back before picking up another on 17. Further birdies followed on holes one, three, four and six before two bogeys took the shine off the round.
“It was there for the taking today,” he said. “Overall it was a low-scoring day and for a time there there were a lot of birdies to be made and we made a fair few.”
Gallacher, playing in the same group, was one over for the day after eight holes but then recorded five birdies in a row from the 18th to the fourth and picked up a further stroke on the seventh.
“I kind of slipped up a little bit on the front nine,” he said. “The birdie at 18 was a big one for me and then . . . four on the spin got me back in it.”
Gregory Bourdy was a shot behind Donaldson on eight under after firing a 67. Lee Slattery, Tommy Fleetwood and Garrick Porteous and John Hahn are alongside Gallacher a further shot back.
