Ireland’s Gavin Moynihan missed out on winning a €150,000 BMW car at the French Open on Friday after seeing his ball reverse out of the hole on the 16th.
The 25-year-old had just birdied the 15th hole to get to five under before seeing his his tee shot slamming straight into the side of the hole but bouncing out.
“Everyone on the tee was reminding me of the car,” Moynihan said. “I was happy with par, but I couldn’t believe it stayed out. It went down and obviously had spin coming out of the hole and spun back to probably 12, 15 feet.”
Agony!
— Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) October 18, 2019
Gavin Moynihan came this close to claiming a £130,000 sports car for a hole-in-one at the Open de France... pic.twitter.com/0yDylgHKzm
Moynihan could only manage a par in the end but his two-under 69 kept him right in contention in a share of sixth position. alongside South Africans Jaco van Zyl, Branson Stone, Germany's Martin Kaymer and Frenchman Benjamin Hebert.
The quintet trail joint leaders Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium and South Africa's George Coetzee by four shots going into the weekend at the Ryder Cup course in Paris.
Former Ryder Cup player Colsaerts is in contention for a first win since 2012 after adding a 66 to his opening 67 to finish on nine under, a total matched late in the day by overnight joint-leader Coetzee, who made six birdies in his last nine holes in a 68.
American Kurt Kitayama is a shot off the lead on eight under, with Scotland's Richie Ramsay a stroke further back following a second round of 69.
Colsaerts reached a career-high of 32nd in the world following his victory in the Volvo World Match Play Championship in 2012, a win which helped him earn a Ryder Cup wild card from Europe captain Jose Maria Olazabal.
The 36-year-old Belgian won just one of his four matches in the "Miracle at Medinah", but famously made eight birdies and an eagle in partnering Lee Westwood to a fourballs victory over Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker on the opening day.
Colsaerts has struggled to consistently reproduce such form and began the week 424th in the world and 114th on the Race to Dubai, with only the top 117 keeping their European Tour card for 2020 after next week’s Portugal Masters.
“I think I just needed a reboot,” said Colsaerts, who has played nine of the last 10 events.
“I felt like I was playing good enough throughout the year but I would always throw a pretty bad nine holes in here and there that would make me go backwards.
“Every time I got myself in position I went backwards, which leaves a bit of a sour taste. I’ve seen better days and I’ve been happier so I want to play well and get this over with and see you next year.”
Kitayama has already won twice in his maiden European Tour campaign, although his third place in last week’s Italian Open was his first top 10 since winning the Oman Open in March.
“When it’s playing this tough, and you come out with a couple under, it feels really good,” Kitayama said after a 68 compiled in cold and windy conditions which greeted the early starters.
“Coming into today, I was definitely thinking ‘Oh, it’s going to be really tough’, but it was a lot of fun.”
Ramsay’s second round got off to a nightmare start with a double bogey on the opening hole, but the Scot battled back to record a 69 and maintain his current run of good form.
“I’m disappointed to finish with a bogey but overall really happy because it was a tough start,” Ramsay said. “Really proud to bounce back well and obviously 69 is a good score considering the way I started.”
Ireland's Paul Dunne carded a level-par 71, not enough to turn around an opening 77, and he missed the cut on six over.
SECOND ROUND LEADERBOARD
(Britain and Irish unless stated, par 71
133 Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 67 66, George Coetzee (Rsa) 65 68
134 Kurt Kitayama (USA) 66 68
135 Richie Ramsay 66 69
136 Joachim B Hansen (Den) 68 68
137 Gavin Moynihan 68 69, Brandon Stone (Rsa) 68 69, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 68 69, Jaco Van Zyl (Rsa) 67 70, Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 66 71
138 Jamie Donaldson 71 67, Victor Perez (Fra) 67 71
139 Steven Brown 71 68, S.S.P Chawrasia (Ind) 70 69, Hudson Swafford (USA) 74 65, Kalle Samooja (Fin) 67 72, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 65 74, Thomas Detry (Bel) 71 68, Lee Slattery 71 68
140 Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 69 71, Hugo Leon (Chi) 68 72, Deyen Lawson (Aus) 68 72, Niklas Lemke (Swe) 73 67, Stewart Cink (USA) 70 70
141 Andy Sullivan 70 71, Jerome Lando Casanova (Fra) 69 72, Charlie Saxon (USA) 70 71, Gavin Green (Mal) 73 68, Romain Langasque (Fra) 68 73, Renato Paratore (Ita) 69 72
142 Oliver Fisher 70 72, Jason Scrivener (Aus) 69 73, Charles Larcelet (a) (Fra) 71 71, Julien Quesne (Fra) 70 72, Jeong weon Ko (Fra) 73 69, Bradley Dredge 69 73, Kristoffer Reitan (Nor) 68 74, David Horsey 70 72, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Esp) 69 73, Chris Paisley 68 74, Romain Wattel (Fra) 72 70, Stephen Gallacher 70 72, Sam Horsfield 70 72, Jake McLeod (Aus) 73 69, Jordan Smith 68 74, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 70 72
143 Ashley Chesters 70 73, Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 72 71, Marc Warren 71 72, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 73 70, Jeunghun Wang (Kor) 74 69, David Lipsky (USA) 71 72, Nicolai Hojgaard (Den) 67 76, Thomas Pieters (Bel) 74 69
144 Ben Evans 71 73, Alex Noren (Swe) 72 72, Ashun Wu (Chn) 70 74, Richard McEvoy 69 75, Callum Shinkwin 70 74, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 67 77, James Morrison 71 73, Liam Johnston 68 76, Lucas Herbert (Aus) 71 73, Max Schmitt (Ger) 72 72, Justin Walters (Rsa) 67 77, Frederic Lacroix (Fra) 72 72
145 Ricardo Gouveia (Por) 71 74, Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 73 72, Joost Luiten (Ned) 69 76, Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 72 73, Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 69 76, Adrien Saddier (Fra) 73 72, Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 76 69, Alejandro Canizares (Esp) 75 70, Yusaku Miyazato (Jpn) 72 73, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 71 74
MISSED CUT
146 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 76 70, Joel Stalter (Fra) 72 74, Clement Sordet (Fra) 72 74, Matthias Schwab (Aut) 68 78, Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa) 72 74, Nacho Elvira (Esp) 75 71, Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa) 70 76, Sam Brazel (Aus) 73 73, Alexander Levy (Fra) 69 77, Jens Dantorp (Swe) 73 73
147 David Law 71 76, Chris Wood 73 74, Cyril Bouniol (Fra) 72 75, David Howell 74 73, Nick Cullen (Aus) 72 75, Aaron Rai 72 75
148 Espen Kofstad (Nor) 71 77, Paul Dunne 77 71, Oliver Wilson 72 76, Louis De Jager (Rsa) 74 74, Adrian Otaegui (Esp) 73 75, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 70 78, Scott Jamieson 74 74
149 Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 74 75, Stuart Manley 76 73, Bernd Ritthammer (Ger) 76 73
150 Ross Fisher 76 74, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 74 76
151 Thomas Bjorn (Den) 76 75, Per Langfors (Swe) 78 73, Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 76 75
152 Hyo-won Park (Kor) 75 77, Jack Singh Brar 75 77
153 Sebastian Soderberg (Swe) 75 78
154 Jose-Maria Olazabal (Esp) 77 77, David Ravetto (Fra) 76 78, Anton Karlsson (Swe) 77 77, Guido Migliozzi (Esp) 78 76
157 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 76 81
