Galway duo Ronan Mullarney and Liam Nolan are within five shots off the lead after the second round of the Blot Play9 at the Golf Bluegreen de Pléneuf Val André in France.
Ronan Mullarney is currently on 5-under-par, three shots off the lead; Liam Nolan is two further back on 3-under.
Pablo Ereño and John Gough share a one-stroke lead heading into the weekend of the Blot Play9.
Spaniard Ereño carded a two under 68 and was joined at the top of the leaderboard by Gough shortly after, with the Englishman signing for a one under par second round of 69. Ereño started his round one shot behind overnight leader Gough, and after bogeying the par four sixth, looked to be out of contention early on.
An eagle on the following hole offset the damage before a bogey at the ninth took the Spaniard back to level par. Two back nine birdies, including a nice up and down at the 17th, allowed the Spaniard to round off a solid Friday in France.
“Overall, I’m really happy with the round,” he said. “It was playing really hard out there today, the fairways were rolling a lot, and the greens were firm too, so it was hard to create birdie chances.
“I try not to look at the scoreboard; I try to play my own game when it’s my turn to get out there.
“I was hitting some great shots on the first four or five holes; I just wasn’t able to make any putts and then saved bogey at six with a really good wedge shot before I played the seventh perfectly and got eagle.
“All I’m doing is playing my best golf, and that was eight under in these first couple of days. I want to go as deep as I can and we will see how the course plays over the next couple of days.”
Gough, starting at the tenth, birdied two of his opening three holes before dropping three shots in four ahead of the turn. The 27-year-old responded well, however, steadying the ship with six straight pars, before carding back-to-back birdies and finishing with a routine par putt.
“I definitely didn’t hit it as well as yesterday,” he said. “The early birdies helped me because I wasn’t hitting it great and I was scrapping it around a little bit.
“My short game was quite tidy, and I made some good pars and getting a couple of birdies in at the end that will make dinner taste a little bit better.”
After taking advantage of low scoring conditions on the opening day, Gough, alongside the rest of the field, struggled to get going on day two.
“It was a mixture of everything,” he added. “I wasn’t hitting it in the right places at all. I think I actually managed it well, because you can have a big number quite easily out here. “On this course you have to be patient and hopefully some putts start dropping.
“It’s very pleasing to be in the final group tomorrow, but the last two days have been very long, and there’s two long days ahead of us. I’m going to keep doing what I’ve been doing over these two days and then go from there.”
The pair hold a one-shot lead over American Charles Huntzinger who sits in solo third at seven under par. Frenchman Tom Gueant carded a level par 70 and holds outright fourth, one shot ahead of a pack of six in a share of fifth.
The third round of the Blot Play9 gets under way at 8am local time on Saturday with Ereño and Gough teeing off alongside Huntzinger at 12:25pm.
