McGrane takes up challenge

GOLF:SHANE LOWRY will have to wait until this morning to put the finishing touches to his second round as he attempts to keep pace with halfway leaders Jose Manuel Lara and Mikael Lundberg.

With play suspended for the day, Lowry will resume on five under, two adrift of the clubhouse leaders and with one hole to play.

Damien McGrane leads the Irish challenge on six under but Peter Lawrie struggled to cope with the conditions as he lost his lead and fell back into a tie for 13th place.

Lara finished an impressive second round on 68 to move seven under par for the tournament and was joined by Lundberg of Sweden – who only managed 15 holes of his round before officials called it a day. Lara (34) picked up five birdies on the front nine with a bogey at the 15th the only blemish on a round which has seen him move firmly into contention at the midway point.

Lundberg bogeyed the sixth but still kept up with Lara by birdieing the 13th, 15th, 17th and the third after starting on the back nine but the Spaniard said he was happy with his own game despite ever-changing wind patterns.

McGrane is tied with Oliver Fisher and Gary Boyd for third and felt he was lucky to go out in the afternoon session. “We got the best of the weather, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.

“A round of 71 was a reasonable performance, although I probably played a bit better than that. It was funny day out there, and a lot can go wrong on a day like today. I made a lot of birdie chances coming in, but just couldn’t hole the putts. But I hit good putts, so I’m reasonably happy with my performance.”

Paul McGinley – whose last win on tour came six years ago – finished on four under as the leaderboard retained a green hue and was delighted with the way he played. “Anything under par today is a pretty good score,” he admitted.

“Some golf courses lend themselves to playing in the wind, but this one probably doesn’t. There’s lot of elevation changes and a lot of water, plus we didn’t really get any help from the wind, because it seemed to be blowing across us most of the time.

“So it was a tough day, and to break par was good going. I’m disappointed with the two bogeys towards the end.”