Irish struggling badly at school

Ireland's three competitors at the European Tour qualifying school in Spain will have to count on a remarkable change of fortunes if they are to survive the cut after tomorrow's fourth round.

Jim Carvill, Francis Howley and Damien Mooney all followed poor opening rounds with equally disappointing second rounds yesterday to lie well off the pace being set by Scotland's Ross Drummond and Swede Henrik Nystrom on 137, seven under par.

Carvill, with a 77 added to his 75, is best of the Irish on 152, 15 strokes behind the leaders. Howley is on 154 after adding an 80 to his opening 74, while Mooney is a further two shots back after a 77 yesterday.

Former Ryder Cup trio Steve Richardson, Paul Way and Gordon J Brand are all on course to win back their Tour cards, but English teenager Justin Rose, fourth in this year's British Open as an amateur, continues to struggle. He shot 73 yesterday to add to his opening 78.

In Florida, Keith Nolan made a disastrous start to his second round in the US qualifying school. The Bray golfer was three over par after three holes to lie in 140th position.

Ryoken Kawagishi, seeking his first win in three years, fired a five-under-par 66 to take the first round lead in the $2 million Dunlop Phoenix tournament in Japan yesterday.

The 31-year-old grabbed a one stroke lead over fellow-Japanese Yoshinori Kaneko, with England's Lee Westwood leading a group one shot further back.

Darren Clarke joined JoseMaria Olazabal on one-under-par 70.

Australia's Terry Price and England's David Howell overcame difficult, windy conditions to share the lead after the first round of the Australian PGA championship.

The pair shot matching rounds of three-under-par 69 to lead Trinidad's Stephen Ames by a shot with Chris Gaunt of Australia and Anthony Wall of England a further stroke behind.

Conditions on the testing New South Wales links course were made even harder by blustering south easterly winds with 42 of the 150 starters failing to break 80.