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The quest for that last golden ticket to the Masters could yet have a green hue, as Paul Dunne – maintaining his form from a career-best tied-fifth finish on the PGA Tour last week – and Shane Lowry, finally rediscovering his ability to shoot consecutive sub-par rounds, moved into contention in the Houston Open.
With only the winner, if not already exempt, claiming the last available place in the field for Augusta, Dunne – coming in on the back of a top-five finish at the Corales Championship in the Dominican Republic – kept that momentum going by completing his weather-affected opening round to sign for a 64 and then adding a second round 71 to reach the midpoint on nine-under-par 135, just two strokes behind early clubhouse leader Beau Hossler.
Dunne barely had time for a quick bite to eat after completing the final four holes of his opening round before getting under way again, and despite a bogey on the 10th, his first hole, where he pushed his drive into a waste area and needed to take a penalty drop, the 25-year-old Greystones golfer kept his focus in an impressive second round to stay in thick of the action.
With three birdies on his card – at the 13th (three feet), third (two feet) and eighth (two feet) – as his wedge play was razor sharp to go with two bogeys, on the 10th and 18th, Dunne’s second round guaranteed he would head into the weekend among those chasing that last exemption into the Masters.
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“I’ve been driving the ball well and when I can get the ball in the fairway with the driver, the rest of the game comes easier for me than that part of it,” Dunne told Sky Sports.
“It would be nice to have a chance to win on Sunday so hopefully I can have a good round tomorrow and put myself in a position to where I can get the adrenalin going on Sunday.”
For Lowry, who has endured a frustrating season to date, successive rounds of 68 for a midway total of eight-under-par 136 left the Offalyman also eyeing a productive weekend work’s. Lowry’s round of five birdies and a bogey (on the eighth, where he drove left into rough) again showed his putter was an ally rather than a foe: he rolled in three birdie putts of longer than 10 feet, the longest being an 18-footer on the 11th.
Pádraig Harrington and Seamus Power completed the Irish quintet to make the cut with Harrington back at four under after a second round 73 while Power is one shot better off at five under.
Collated second round scores in the Houston Open, Golf Club of Houston, United States of America (USA unless stated, Irish in bold, par 72):
133 Beau Hossler 65 68
134 Abraham Ancer (Mex) 68 66, Sam Ryder 66 68, Rickie Fowler 66 68, Nicholas Lindheim 68 66
135 Julian Suri 66 69, Paul Dunne (Ire) 64 71, Kevin Tway 65 70, Bronson Burgoon 67 68, Jordan Spieth 68 67
136 Bud Cauley 67 69, Luke List 68 68, Shawn Stefani 67 69, Sam Saunders 70 66, Matt Kuchar 68 68, Chesson Hadley 68 68, Brett Stegmaier 67 69, Grayson Murray 67 69, Shane Lowry (Ire) 68 68, James Hahn 69 67, Ryan Armour 66 70, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 68 68
137 Ethan Tracy 70 67, Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 69 68, Justin Rose (Eng) 68 69, Roberto Diaz (Mex) 68 69, Ian Poulter (Eng) 73 64, Matt Every 67 70, John Huh 70 67
138 Jason Dufner 71 67, Robert Garrigus 69 69, Aaron Wise 69 69, Lucas Glover 65 73, Scott Piercy 68 70, Charles Howell III 71 67, Jamie Lovemark 69 69, Danny Lee (Nzl) 68 70, Michael Thompson 67 71, Keith Mitchell 67 71, Troy Merritt 69 69, Johnson Wagner 71 67
139 Adam Schenk 70 69, Greg Chalmers (Aus) 67 72, Nate Lashley 70 69, Seamus Power (Ire) 67 72, Keegan Bradley 68 71, Phil Mickelson 68 71, Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 71 68, Joel Dahmen 68 71, Ben Crane 72 67, Tom Lovelady 70 69, Dawie Van Der Walt (Rsa) 70 69, Sean O'Hair 71 68, Jonathan Byrd 69 70, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) 71 68, Lee Westwood (Eng) 69 70
140 Nick Watney 71 69, Andrew Putnam 71 69, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 69 71, Kevin Streelman 68 72, Hunter Mahan 71 69, Tony Finau 70 70, Chad Campbell 69 71, Bill Haas 68 72, Russell Henley 69 71, Tyrone Van Aswegen (Rsa) 72 68, Brandt Snedeker 67 73, Tyler Duncan 68 72, Pádraig Harrington (Ire) 67 73
141 Jason Kokrak 67 74, Scott Brown 71 70, Benjamin Silverman (Can) 73 68, Matt Jones (Aus) 70 71, Scott Stallings 73 68, Byeong-Hun An (Kor) 69 72, Kelly Kraft 70 71, Richy Werenski 70 71, Daniel Berger 69 72, Seung-su Han 71 70, Ernie Els (Rsa) 70 71, Dominic Bozzelli 72 69, Bobby Gates 70 71, Martin Piller 68 73, Tom Hoge 68 73, Fabian Gomez (Arg) 68 73, Denny McCarthy 68 73, J.B. Holmes 73 68, Rob Oppenheim 69 72, Brandon Harkins 70 71, Thomas Pieters (Bel) 69 72
142 Steve Stricker 67 75, Harold Varner III 68 74, Cody Gribble 71 71, William McGirt 71 71, Alex Cejka (Ger) 70 72, Chez Reavie 70 72, Harris English 72 70, Stephan Jaeger (Ger) 68 74, Rod Pampling (Aus) 66 76, Cheng-Tsung Pan (Twn) 69 73, Michael Kim 71 71, Blayne Barber 71 71, Brice Garnett 71 71
143 Peter Malnati 72 71, Chris Kirk 70 73, Daryl Fathauer 73 70, Andrew Loupe 69 74, D.A. Points 69 74, Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 73 70, J.J. Henry 68 75, Peter Uihlein 72 71, Dylan Frittelli (Rsa) 71 72, Russell Knox (Sco) 71 72
144 Zach Cabra 73 71, Ryan Baca 70 74, Chris Stroud 71 73, Xinjun Zhang (Cn) 75 69, Jon Curran 69 75, Jonas Blixt (Swe) 70 74
145 Ryan Palmer 72 73, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 70 75, Kyung Ju Choi (Kor) 74 71
146 Lanto Griffin 71 75, Nick Taylor (Can) 73 73, Robert Streb 70 76, Whee Kim (Kor) 69 77, Ryan Blaum 70 76, Patrick Rodgers 74 72, Mackenzie Hughes (Can) 69 77, Corey Conners (Can) 73 73
147 Brian Stuard 74 73, Bob Estes 75 72, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 70 77, Cameron Tringale 73 74
148 Talor Gooch 73 75, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 70 78, Yuta Ikeda (Jpn) 75 73, Camilo Villegas (Col) 73 75, Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spa) 71 77
149 Martin Flores 75 74
150 Jonathan Randolph 74 76
153 Smylie Kaufman 75 78
154 JJ Wood 79 75
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