Browne, Moriarty keep leaders in sight

Challenge Tour:Colm Moriarty and Stephen Browne stayed in touch with the leaders at the Apulia San Domenico Grand Final yesterday, with second round scores of 72 and 69 leaving the Irish pair hopeful of sneaking into the top 20 of the end-of-season rankings tomorrow afternoon.

Both men need to be among the top two at the conclusion of the season-ending event on Italy's Adriatic coast to guarantee a European Tour card for next season.

Browne is the closest of the two after a second consecutive 69 at the San Domenico Golf took him to four-under-par 138, five strokes behind the four joint leaders, Jamie Donaldson and Stuart Manley of Wales, Frenchman Michael Lorenzo-Vera and the Swede Mikael Lundberg with 36 holes to play.

"The conditions were pretty horrible today so I am pleased to have shot two under," said Browne. "I am only five shots behind which is nothing over two days, but, depending on the conditions, I will have to put a low round in to get up there.

"If you are going to win any tournament you are going to have a particularly low score, and I feel that I am playing well enough to do that."

Moriarty's second round of one over 72 left him on two under for the tournament. The Athlone professional is seven off the pace but, like Browne, remains upbeat about his chances of making a surge to the top of the leaderboard over the next two days.

HASSAN TROPHY:Despite suffering from a neck strain, Padraig Harrington opened a three-shot lead after the first round of the Hassan II Trophy at the Royal Golf Dar Es Salamm, Morocco, yesterday.

Harrington shot a six-under-par 67 to lead from Mark O'Meara and the English pair of David Howell and Simon Dyson, while Darren Clarke is a shot further back after a 71.

Harrington birdied the fifth and the eighth in a first nine of 34, and added five more birdies in a homeward run of 33, dropping just one shot to par at the 14th.

LET QUALIFYING:Martina Gillen safely made the cut after the third round of the qualifiers for the Ladies European Tour's 2008 season as Welsh amateur Lydia Hall and French rookie Melodie Bourdy led the qualifiers at Le Fonti GC in Italy yesterday.

Gillen tied for 10th place after rounds of 68, 71 and 71, but Claire Coughlan and Hazel Kavanagh missed out.

Coughlan, who dropped six shots in the last three holes over the three rounds, came up just one shot shot outside the cut which came at two-over-par 218.

Kavanagh finished on 223 after round of 74, 74 and 75.

Hall (19), carded a third round of 67, while Bourdy, who turns 21 today, carded a 68 for a 54-hole total of 205, 11-under-par. The pair finished two strokes clear of Spain's Emma Cabrera, with Australia's Frances Bondad and Dana Lacey a stroke further back.

The cut fell to 52 players on two-over-par. The leading 30 players after 72 holes will attain category eight status on the LET next season, while the players making the cut but finishing outside the top 30 will receive category 10b.

In case of a tie for 30th position there will be a play-off.

LPGA:Sweden's Suzann Pettersen fired a seven-under-par 65 on the Pattaya Old Course at Siam Country Club in Chonburi, Thailand, yesterday, to take a two-stroke lead over Alena Sharp in the Honda LPGA Thailand Open.

TROPHÉE HASSAN II DE GOLF

(Royal Golf Dar Es Salam)

First round:

67 - Padraig Harrington (Irl)

70 -M O'Meara Mark (US), D Howell (Eng), S Dyson (Eng)

71 -MJ Singh (Ind), R Jacquelin (Fra), Darren Clarke (NIrl),

72 -F Roca (Spa), J Spence (Eng), C Schwartzl (Rsa),

73 -A Mörk (Fra), S Lyle (Sco), R Chapman (Eng),

74 -Serghini Fayçal (Mor), D Frost (Rsa),

75 -M Mackenzie (Eng), Y El Hassani Younes (Mor), S Drummond (Sco), M Davis (Eng),

76 -R Sterne (Rsa), G Evans (Eng),

78 -A Sabi (Mor),

80 -B Casper (US)

81 -W Westner (Rsa).

CHALLENGE TOUR - GRAND FINAL

(San Domenico Golf, Savelletri, Italy)

Second round: 133- J Donaldson (Wal) 66 67; M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 62 71; M Lundberg (Swe) 65 68; S Manley (Wal) 69 64; 134 - G Clark (Eng) 68 66; 135- F Aguilar (Chi) 66 69; J Luiten (Ned) 69 66; 136 -F Delamontagne (Fra) 69 67; E Ramsay (Sco) 68 68; MA Carlsson (Swe) 67 69; H Rey (Arg) 69 67; F Zanotti (Par) 69 67; 137 -A McArthur (Sco) 68 69; P Fowler (Aus) 67 70; 138 -R Dinwiddie (Eng) 68 70; M Rodriguez (Arg) 67 71; C Del Moral (Esp) 68 70; Stephen Browne (Irl)69 69; 139 - R Ramsay (Sco) 69 70; P Baker (Eng) 69 70; N Vanhootegem (Bel) 71 68; G Paddison (Nzl) 69 70; 140 - Colm Moriarty (Irl)68 72; M Wiegele (Aut) 66 74; J Kamte (Rsa) 71 69; R Coles (Eng) 68 72; J Zapata (Arg) 70 70; F Calmels (Fra) 70 70; 141 - J Larsen (Nor) 70 71; A Schmidt Hansen (Den) 73 68; K Eriksson (Swe) 73 68; B Mason (Eng) 70 71; G Murray (Sco) 71 70; 142 -P Whiteford (Sco) 74 68; I Pyman (Eng) 71 71; I Van Weerelt (Ned) 71 71; R Mcgowan (Eng) 68 74; J McLeary (Sco) 70 72; R Eyraud (Fra) 67 75; 144 -A Velasco (Esp) 72 72; J Abbate (Arg) 70 74; L Westerberg (Swe) 73 71; L Bond (Wal) 73 71; 145 -E Molinari (Ita) 73 72; S Davis (Eng) 75 70.

WOMEN'S EUROPEAN TOUR QUALIFYING

(Le Fonti Golf Club, Italy)

Third round: 205 -L Hall (Wal) 68 70 67, M Bourdy (Fra) 68 69 68207 - E CabreraBello (Spa) 70 70 67208 - F Bondad (Aus) 72 69 67, D Lacey (Aus) 69 67 72 209 -M Ohlsson (Swe) 68 73 68, C Afonso (Fra) 68 71 70, R Bell (Eng) 70 69 70, A Knutsson (Swe) 68 70 71 210 - Martina Gillen (Irl)68 71 71 211 -J Greciet (Fra) 68 71 72, N Angehrn (Swi) 65 74 72 212 - S Michl (Aut) 73 70 69, A Norman Hansen (Den) 75 68 69, N Gergely (Aut) 70 72 70 213 - E Zackrisson (Swe) 71 71 71, C Fallay (Fra) 71 73 69, S Lee Bregman (Rsa) 72 69 72, N Fink (Aut) 72 73 68, I Maconi (Ita) 69 76 68 214 -X Wunsch (Spa) 73 74 67, V Valvassori (Ita) 69 73 72, R Yokomine (Jpn) 69 75 70, N Reis (Swe) 68 73 73, J Jail (Fra) 72 72 70, M van der Graaf (Neth) 66 74 74, I Elguezabal (Spa) 73 72 69 215 -K Ruuttila (Fin) 71 75 69, L Kristin Saether (Nor) 72 71 72, B Allen (USA) 72 70 73, K Schallenberg (Ger) 71 72 72, J Clingan (Eng) 69 73 73, C Hallstrom (Swe) 71 73 71, L Pace (Rsa) 74 70 71 216 -K Combes (Aus) 75 68 73, B Mullins Lane (Aus) 73 70 73, F Seeholzer (Swi) 71 73 72, N Claire Booth (Eng) 73 72 71, E Lyons (Eng) 71 67 78, L Tornevall (Swe) 75 70 71 217 -M Buus (Den) 73 74 70, S Nicholson (Nzl) 73 73 71, A Caudal (Fra) 73 71 73, Z Kamasova (Svk) 71 74 72, D Becker (Ger) 68 77 72 218 -J Tvede (Den) 74 74 70, B Paruscio (Ita) 76 71 71, E Ohlsson (Swe) 72 74 72, K Borjeskog (Swe) 70 72 76, J Wilson (Sco) 69 75 74, S Beautell (Spa) 72 72 74, L Walters (Eng) 73 72 73/ Missed the cut: 219 -J Berton (Fra) 72 77 70, E Smets (Bel) 74 75 70, M Verchenova (Rus) 73 73 73, R Rasmussen (Den) 73 73 73, Claire Coughlan (Irl)73 73 73, E Bjarvall (Swe) 76 70 73, S Heath (Eng) 74 71 74 223 - Hazel Kavanagh (Irl)74 74 75.

LPGA TOUR, HONDA LPGA THAILAND

(Siam CC Pattaya Old Course, Thailand)

Leading first round scores (Kor unless stated, par 72):65 -S Pettersen (Nor) 67 - A Sharp 68 - A Park, K Hull (Aus) 69 - R Hetherington (Aus), S Hyun Ahn, K Eun Bae, Hee-Won Han, R Rankin, M Hjorth (Swe) 70 - L Kane (Can)

71 -J Mi Kim, Brittany Lang, G Park, L Diaz, S Gustafson (Swe), M Miyasato (Tha), H seon Lee, Laura Davies (Eng)

72 -L Wessberg (Swe), P Creamer, V Nirapathpongporn (Tha), S Prammanasudh, I Kyung Kim, A Sorenstam (Swe), B Lincicome