Ruaidhrí McGee makes first European Tour cut since 2015

Derryman Ruaidhrí McGee made his first cut on the European Tour since 2015 thanks to a second round 73 at the Shot Clock Masters in Austria which saw him finish right on the mark at two over par, 11 shots behind leader Mikko Korhonen of Finland.

The 27-year-old has played mainly on the Challenge Tour this season – making three cuts so far – with his only other European Tour appearance coming in Sicily last month where he missed out on the weekend.

However, his battling Friday round at Diamond Country Club was enough to secure some weekend employment after he looked to be out of the running when he started with four bogeys in his first five holes.

However, back-to-back birdies followed with a third coming his way on his 10th hole to get back to one over par for the day before he parred in to make the cut.

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McGee is only member of the Irish trio to make the cut at the new European Tour event where a shot clock follows each group with players penalised if they do not hit their ball within the time limits.

Players have 50 seconds to take their shot if they are first to play, including tee shots on par threes, or 40 seconds for tee shots on other holes or when second or third to play. They face a one-shot penalty for each bad time incurred, but none were handed out as the players quickly adapted to the experimental format.

Holywood Golf Club’s 15-year-old amateur Tom McKibbin made an impressive start on Thursday with a 71 in his first ever professional event but he couldn’t maintain that form on Friday, slipping back to six over par after a 78.

Meanwhile the struggles continue for Gavin Moynihan as he failed to make the weekend for the 13th time this season after a dismal round of 79 which included two runs of four consecutive bogeys.

The Dubliner will need a monumental effort over the next few months if he is to keep his European Tour card which he secured at qualifying school last November although he did receive a welcome financial boost last month in winning the Golf Sixes event alongside Paul Dunne.

At the top of the leaderboard Korhonen will take a slender of just one shot into the third round with England's Steve Webster and Justin Walters of South Africa making up a tie for second.

Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez had been four shots clear when he reached 10 under par, but the 54-year-old dropped three shots in his last three holes to finish seven under alongside home favourite Matthias Schwab, Ashun Wu and Jeppe Huldahl.

Collated second round scores in the European Tour The 2018 Shot Clock Masters, Diamond CC, Atzenbrugg, Vienna, Austria (Britain unless stated, Irish in bold par 72):

135 Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 68 67

136 Steve Webster 69 67, Justin Walters (Rsa) 68 68

137 Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 68 69, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 67 70, Ashun Wu (Chn) 69 68, Matthias Schwab (Aut) 69 68

139 Charlie Ford 72 67, Jeff Winther (Den) 69 70, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 70 69, Oscar Lengden (Swe) 66 73, Ross McGowan 69 70

140 Kalle Samooja (Fin) 70 70, Jarand Arnoy (Nor) 72 68, Daniel Im (USA) 70 70, Tom Lewis 69 71, Nick Cullen (Aus) 70 70, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 71 69, Peter Hanson (Swe) 67 73, Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 72 68, Eirik Tage Johansen (Nor) 71 69, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 70 70, Connor Syme 68 72, Austin Connelly (Can) 69 71, Steve Surry 75 65, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 71 69

141 Oscar Stark (Swe) 69 72, David Horsey 70 71, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 72 69, Grant Forrest 71 70, Daan Huizing (Ned) 71 70, Dimitrios Papadatos (Aus) 76 65, Oliver Farr 69 72

142 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 69 73, Matthew Nixon 73 69, Bernd Ritthammer (Ger) 70 72, Jin-ho Choi (Kor) 70 72

143 Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 67 76, Adam Bland (Aus) 70 73, Jonathan Thomson 70 73, Ashley Chesters 71 72

144 Lukas Nemecz (Aut) 73 71, Sepp Straka (Aut) 69 75, Lee Slattery 72 72, Henric Sturehed (Swe) 73 71, Simon Khan 72 72, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 71 73, Phachara Khongwatmai (Tha) 71 73, Duncan Stewart 72 72, Laurie Canter 71 73, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 72 72, Victor Riu (Fra) 72 72, Mark Foster 69 75

145 Matthew Millar (Aus) 71 74, Sebastian Heisele (Ger) 70 75, Johan Carlsson (Swe) 72 73, Kristian Krogh Johannessen (Nor) 71 74, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 73 72, Ben Stow 74 71, Bradley Dredge 74 71, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 73 72

146 Jason Norris (Aus) 71 75, Clemens Prader (Aut) 74 72, Mark Tullo (Chi) 72 74, Anders Hansen (Den) 68 78, Ryan Evans 71 75, Markus Brier (Aut) 75 71, Scott Fernandez (Spa) 73 73, Ruaidhrí McGee (Irl) 73 73, Jack Munro (Aus) 72 74

The following players did not make the cut:

147 Ben Evans 73 74, Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 69 78, Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez (Spa) 74 73, Richard Green (Aus) 75 72, (a) Maximillan Steinlechner (Aut) 75 72, Bradley Neil 68 79, Ajeetesh Sandhu (Ind) 77 70, Pedro Oriol (Spa) 78 69, Josh Geary (Nzl) 74 73

148 Christofer Blomstrand (Swe) 70 78, (a) Kristoffer Reitan (Nor) 70 78, Minkyu Kim (Kor) 70 78, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 76 72, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 72 76, Trevor Fisher Jnr (Rsa) 75 73

149 Pontus Widegren (Swe) 73 76, (a) Tom McKibbin (NIrl) 71 78, Rak hyun Cho (Kor) 73 76, Richard McEvoy 73 76

150 Gavin Moynihan (Irl) 71 79, Estanislao Goya (Arg) 73 77, Matthew Baldwin 75 75, Marcel Schneider (Ger) 74 76, Florian Fritsch (Ger) 70 80

151 Nico Geyger (Chi) 74 77, Leonhard Astl (Aut) 77 74, Chase Koepka (USA) 73 78, Daniel Brooks 74 77, Matt Ford 75 76, Gary Stal (Fra) 72 79, Carlos Pigem (Spa) 74 77

152 Marcus Armitage 75 77, Liam Johnston 77 75, Christopher Mivis (Bel) 77 75, Francesco Laporta (Ita) 75 77

153 Chris Hanson 72 81, Kim Koivu (Fin) 75 78

154 Bernard Neumayer (Aut) 76 78, Berni Reiter (Aut) 80 74

155 Oscar Serna (Mex) 76 79, Johan Edfors (Swe) 79 76

157 Petr Gal (Cze) 78 79

158 Johannes Steiner (Aut) 78 80, Paul Shields 79 79

162 Petr Dedek (Cze) 75 87, Rene Gruber (Aut) 81 81

164 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 82 82