Oldcorn revives Ryder hopes

Andrew Oldcorn breathed a massive sigh of relief after rescuing his Ryder Cup hopes in the Scottish PGA Championship.

But fellow Scot Andrew Coltart's hopes suffered a massive blow as he missed the halfway cut at Gleneagles, watched by European captain Sam Torrance.

It was a good day, however, for Ireland's Gary Murphy, who shot a 69 to finish the day on seven-under par 137, only four shots behind leader Gary Evans of England, who went around in 67 yesterday.

David Higgins was one shot behind Murphy, after adding a second round 71 to his first round 67. Des Smyth and Eamonn Darcy are on two under par after shooting 71 and 69, respectively.

Oldcorn believes he needs to finish in the top three this week to have a fighting chance of qualifying for the European team going into the final counting event, the BMW International Open, next week.

The chances of doing that looked minimal when he ran up a double bogey six on the first hole of his second round to find himself 11 shots off the lead.

But the 41-year-old Scot picked up birdies at the third and fourth to repair the damage before an amazing run of an eagle and four birdies in five holes propelled the PGA champion up the leaderboard.

Oldcorn holed his approach from 69 yards to the 392-yard par four eighth hole for an eagle two and then rattled in four straight birdies to move to eight under par and suddenly just three off the lead.

A bogey at the 15th halted his charge and he failed to birdie the last after thinning his third shot through the green following a long wait as a spectator who had been hit in the face by a shot from playing partner Thomas Levet received treatment from paramedics.

"I don't like to see that," admitted Oldcorn, who still carded a 67 to finish on seven under par.

Playing partner Coltart, at 13th one place above Oldcorn in the cup standings, slumped to a 74 and now probably needs to win next week's tournament in Munich to have a chance of qualifying automatically with all 12 players currently above him playing in the hugely lucrative NEC Invitational in Ohio and guaranteed to pick up valuable points.

The 31-year-old missed a five foot putt for birdie on the 18th green that would have seen him make the cut, ironically watched a few yards away by Torrance who was playing in the group behind.

Evans was one of 66 players who had to return to the PGA Centenary course at 7.30am yesterday to finish their first rounds and carded two birdies in his remaining four holes for a 66.

After a quick cup of tea and a sandwich, he was quickly back amongst the birdies and added a second round 67 that puts him in pole position to end a 10-year wait for his first European tour victory.

"I'm feeling very comfortable with my swing and I just want to keep doing what I'm doing. I don't feel any pressure at all because I've no reason to feel pressure," he said.