Ireland's hopes of winning the PGA of Europe Team Championship took a nosedive at Atalaya Park on the Costa del Sol yesterday as all three players failed to match par. After the first round on Monday, Ireland lay joint seventh but go into the last round today well down the leaderboard and 13 shots behind the leaders Scotland.

Putting was again a problem for the Irish with both Robert Giles (Warrenpoint) and Damian McGrane (Wexford) carding oneover-par 73s. Geoff Loughrey (Knockbracken), who had a super opening 71, took 74 yesterday and didn't contribute to the team total. Scotland's two-round total is 278 with Ireland on 291 and well and truly out of contention. Scotland hold a six strokes lead over surprise team Finland with Wales back in third place.