Irish off to good start at School

Golf Digest/Tour Qualifying: Ireland's Ciarán McMonagle and Raymond Burns fired excellent opening rounds as stage two of the European Tour Qualifying School got off to a low-scoring start at all three venues on the east coast of Spain, as 138 out of the 252 players doing battle for the 89 places on offer at next week's finals went under par.

England's Iain Pyman leads the way at the Club de Golf Oliva Nova, after his opening round of nine under par 63 left him one shot clear of Norway's Oyvind Rojahn and three ahead of Burns.

At the Emporda Golf Club Australia's Paul Marantz carded a round of nine under par 63 to take a one-shot lead from Frenchman Sebastien Delagrange and McMonagle.

At the third Stage Two venue - El Bosque Golf and Country Club - England's Denny Lucas leads with a seven under 65.

LEADING SCORES

At El Bosque: 65 - D Lucas (Eng), 66 - B Teilleria (Fra), O Henningsson (Swe), 67 - F Widmark (Swe), R Finch (Eng). Irish: 71 - L Brady, T Rice, C Moriarty. 77 - J Kehoe.

At Emporda: 63 - P Marantz (Aus), 64 - C McMonagle (Irl), S Delagrange (Fra), 65 - B Barham (Eng), O David (Fra), S Davis (Eng). Irish: 71 - M Collins.

At Oliva Nova: 63 - I Pyman (Eng), 64 - O Rajarn (Nor), 66 - R Burns (Irl), M Atlevi (Swe), R Prevot (Fra). 67 - P Terreni (Ita), L Bond (Eng). Irish: 69 - J Dwyer, 70 - L Walker, 77 - D Mortimer, 78 - R Elliott.

WOMEN'S TOUR: Hazel Kavanagh and Rebecca Coakley secured their playing cards for next season when they finished in the top 30 of the Robe di Kappa Ladies European Tour qualifying school in Italy.

Kavanagh finished in 16th place on 296 while Coakley had a final 78 for 28th place on 298.

Miriam Nagl from Germany on 285 snatched victory from Denmark's Lisa Holm Sorensen at Riva dei Tessali GC in southern Italy. Denmark's Mianne Bagger made history by becoming the first transsexual woman to earn a place on the Women's European Tour.

LEADING SCORES: 285 - M Nagl (Ger) 72 71 71 71; 286 - L Sorensen (Den) 74 71 69 72; 288 - N Angehn (Swi) 77 75 69 67; 290 - C Butler (Aus) 75 70 72 73; 291 - E Pilgrim (Wal) 74 73 74 71, P Koivuranta (Fin) 71 76 73 71, M Parmlid (Swe) 71 72 74 74, A Highgate (Wal) 70 74 70 77. Irish: 296 - H Kavanagh 73 72 74 76. 298 - R Coakley 73 73 74 78. 303 - M Gillen 79 71 75 78.