Higley shoots to the top as Higgins falls back

Digest/ EUROPEAN TOUR: England's Marcus Higley claimed a share of the lead after the second round of the St Omer Open in northern France yesterday.

Higley added a 70 to his opening 67 for a five-under-par halfway total of 137. The 33-year-old carded four birdies and three bogeys to join Spain's Carl Suneson and Australian Peter Fowler at the top of the leaderboard.

Fowler recorded the best round of the day with a 67 while Suneson matched Higley's 70.

David Higgins, who shared the lead after the first round, failed to keep up the momentum and slumped to a 76 for a total of 141.

Stephen Browne was comfortably inside the cut of 145 after adding a 72 to his opening 71.

However, Michael Hoey missed out after a second round 76 left him well off the mark on 150.

Higley, playing in his rookie season on the European Tour after graduating from the Challenge Tour last season, credited his fine performance over the first two rounds to a complete overhaul of his putting technique.

Higley played in the worst conditions of the day in the morning when gusting winds considerably toughened the Aa St Omer Golf Club.

France's Jean-Francois Remesy, who lost a play-off for the Austrian Open last Sunday, missed the cut by just one shot after a second round of 71.

SENIORS TOUR: Des Smyth and Eamonn Darcy plotted their way around the treacherous bunkers at Conwy Golf Club yesterday to fire opening rounds of one-under-par 71 in the £500,000 Ryder Cup Wales Seniors Open.

The Irish pair are two shots off the pace set by Chile's Guillermo Encina.

Italian Ryder Cup star Costantino Rocca, who won the Irish Seniors title a fortnight ago, is tied for second place with the English duo of Tony Allen and Maurice Bembridge,

Jimmy Heggarty is on one over par 73 with Denis O'Sullivan on 76 after finishing treble bogey, par, double bogey. Eddie Polland shot 77.

CLUB PROS: John Dwyer, head professional at Ashbourne GC in Co Meath, fulfilled two ambitions yesterday at Royal Porthcawl by winning the Glenmuir Club Professional Championship, and being chosen for the third time to represent Britain and Ireland in the PGA Cup (the club pros' version of the Ryder Cup).

The 33-year-old was the first to admit, though, that he'd had a fiery battle with playing partner, Andrew Barnett. In fact Dwyer led by either one or two strokes all day, but Barnett tied him with a birdie on the 71st hole. Both finished on six-under-par 282, and the play-off had to go to three holes before Dwyer holed from six feet on the par-four 18th for a winning birdie.

LET TOUR: England's Kirsty Taylor carded a faultless four-under-par 68 in tricky conditions to take a two stroke lead after the first round of the Catalonia Ladies Masters.

Taylor, the 2005 Wales Ladies Open champion, fired four birdies on the hilly Club de Golf Masia Bach near Barcelona, with three on the front nine.

Wales's Becky Brewerton, Australia's Karen Lunn and South Africa's Ashleigh Simon were two shots behind Taylor on two-under 70. Brewerton's score included two eagles on the front nine, at the par-five first and seventh holes,

Ireland's Rebecca Coakley mixed seven bogeys with three birdies in a four-over-par 76.

LGU AMATEUR: The Womens' British Open Amateur Championship will now finish on Sunday with the semi-finals in the morning and the 18-hole final in the afternoon.

This follows the loss of six hours play when torrential overnight rain made the Alwoodley course in Leeds unplayable until after 3pm yesterday. At that point the eight third-round ties had started. But the weather had another blow for the organisers.

The automatic warning device of an electrical storm came into action and forced championship manager Fraser Munro to sound the klaxons and call all players and officials off the course at 7.03 pm.