Irish pair make move

GOLF: Michael Hoey and Peter Lawrie burst onto the leaderboard in the second round of the Singapore Masters at the Laguna National Golf and Country Club yesterday. Hoey improved by 10 shots from his first round 75 for a halfway total of 140, while Lawrie added a 69 for a 141 total as local favourite Mardan Mamat set the pace at nine-under-par 135.

Mamat carries the weight of expectation of the home nation on his shoulders as he takes a one-stroke lead into the weekend, while The European Tour's young guns have plenty to do if they are to challenge for the title.

Mamat's 70 lifted him one shot clear of Marcus Both of Australia and Thailand's Prayad Marksaeng.

Wade Ormsby from Australia is next at six-under-par 138 with the English pair of Ross Fisher, Nick Dougherty and Swede Peter Hanson a further shot back in the group on five under par.

Dougherty is hoping he can handle being the hunter as the defence of his Singapore Masters was thrown into doubt yesterday.

A double bogey on the par three 17th left the Liverpudlian seething with himself after seemingly playing his way to within a shot or two of the pace, then being set by Marksaeng.

The Thai, though, then took a triple bogey at the troublesome 17th and handed the overnight lead to local Mamat.

Dougherty considers the standard of golfers at the event to be a factor in determining the winner.

"It's quite difficult out there," he said. "The calibre of player is not Monty (Colin Montgomerie) so there's a good chance if there's a guy who hasn't won before or an Asian player looking for exemption on the European Tour, it might put enough pressure on them to stop them pushing on and getting to a score I can't reach.

"There's lots of work to do to catch them, but I firmly believe I can do it. I think 15 or 16 under will be enough probably.

Mamat's round of 70 was nothing special and he looked to be heading for second place at most with Marksaeng's early-round form.

But a fightback, coupled with Marksaeng's calamity, gave him the lead once more and he is now hoping to use the experience of two years ago, where he was in contention here before finishing eighth.

"I've been in this position before," he recalled. "I think the memories of 2004 have kept me going in the last two rounds.

"I just want to play my game. After being one over on my front nine, I just told myself that I've been in this situation before and I just played it one shot at a time and kept my focus. "

Gary Murphy and Damien McGrane, however, both missed the cut which came at 145.

Murphy, after an excellent opening 69, slumped to a five-over-par 79 and a total of 148, the same mark as Wexford's McGrane, who shot a second successive 74.