Paul Dunne two shots off the lead after 68 at Carnoustie

Paul Dunne continued to glide along at the Dunhill Links Championship following up his opening round 67 at St Andrews with a four-under 68 over the tougher Carnoustie layout. The 24-year-old is bidding for back-to-back European Tour wins – if he was to do so it would earn him over €1.3 million in a week – having secured his first tour title last weekend when claiming the British Masters with a stunning final-round 61.

Dunne is two shots behind a couple of Englishmen, defending champion Tyrrell Hatton and Tommy Fleetwood, the latter who shot a stunning, nine-under second round of 63 at Carnoustie, a course record.

Dunne, though, can be very pleased with his golf, compiling a round of six birdies and two bogeys in a largely high-quality effort with only a couple of scratchy iron shots and one errant drive to cavil about.

The Greystones golfer recovered from a bogey on the second hole to birdie the third and sixth and turn in 35 shots, one under regulation figures. A three on the par-fourth 10th took him to within a couple of shots of the lead at the time and he maintained the momentum with a neat up-and-down from a greenside bunker on the par-three 11th.

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The par-five 12th is easily reachable in two and following a superb drive, Dunne was able to get home with a six-iron approach. He rolled his 35-foot eagle to about 20 inches and knocked it on for his fourth birdie of the round.

An eight-iron tee shot at the next scampered about 45 feet past the pin from where he two-putted and at the par-five 14th he took an iron off the tee, wafted it right a bit, came up just short with his second, chipped to six feet and then rolled in his fifth birdie putt of the round to once again claim a share of the lead at nine under.

Defending champion Hatton became the first player to go into double figures when moving to 10 under when chipping in at the 16th. but playing in the group behind Dunne mirrored that achievement with a birdie at the par three to join Hatton on 10 under for the tournament.

However, two poorly struck irons put the Irishman in trouble at the 17th and he was unable to get up and down from the rough at the back of the green. Up ahead, Hatton closed with a birdie on the 18th for a 65 and a two round total of 11 under.

Dunne’s wayward drive on the final hole didn’t prove too costly as it came to rest near the 17th tee box from where the Irishman was able to find the home green, about 35-feet from the hole, from where he two-putted for a fine 68 to go with his opening 67.

Dunne admitted he was slow to get into his rhythm in his second round.

“I struggled through the first five but got it around at even par, and from the sixth I started to hit it well. I started to play the golf I’ve been playing over the last couple of weeks and it was pretty stress-free.

“I was hitting a lot of greens, getting the ball in play off the tee, giving myself a lot of chances. I bogeyed 17, but it’s playing tough – it’s a tough finish here. So to play the last three in level par, I would have taken that on the 16th tee. My game is feeling good and hopefully I can make a few birdies at Kingsbarns. This is the first time I’ve broken par here at Carnoustie, so it’s pretty good.”

Graeme McDowell endured a horrible finish with a double-bogey on the 18th that dropped him from a tie for 13th place on six under to 31st. Gavin Moynihan added a second successive two-under 70, this time around St Andrews to move to four under for the tournament. Pádraig Harrington had the joint best round of the day going at one stage from an Irish perspective as he was five under after 16 holes but a bogey on the 17th saw him eventually sign for a four-under 68 to go with an opening 72.

It was a disappointing day for Shane Lowry whose opening round 68 at St Andrews was followed by a three-over-par 75 at Carnoustie, containing four bogeys and just a single birdie. Rory McIlroy was two over at the turn during his second round at Carnoustie but fought hard to record three birdies on the back nine for a 71 and a level par total.

SCOREBOARD
(all courses par 72; British and Irish unless stated):

Kingsbarns
136 David Drysdale 69 67, Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 69 67
137 Ben Evans 69 68
138 Romain Wattel (Fra) 70 68
139 Alexander Levy (Fra) 70 69, Robert Rock 71 68, Joost Luiten (Ned) 70 69, Gregory Havret (Fra) 70 69
140 Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 74 66, Jaco Ahlers (Rsa) 71 69, Matthew Giles (Aus) 73 67, James Morrison 71 69, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 71 69, Bradley Dredge 70 70
141 Ulrich Van Den Berg (Rsa) 73 68, Laurie Canter 72 69, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 73 68, Mikko Ilonen (Fij) 74 67, Marc Warren 70 71, Eddie Pepperell 72 69
142 Ricardo Gouveia (Por) 71 71, Jens Fahrbring (Swe) 71 71, Oliver Bekker (Rsa) 70 72, Alejandro Canizares (Esp) 75 67, Connor Syme 72 70, Lee Slattery 73 69
143 Scott Hend (Aus) 73 70, Julian Suri (USA) 72 71, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 73 70, Pablo Larrazabal (Esp) 76 67
144 Jack Davidson 71 73, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 74 70, Ashley Hall (Aus) 75 69, Graeme Storm 75 69
145 Anthony Wall 73 72, Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 74 71, David Horsey 75 70, Matteo Manassero (Ita) 74 71, Tom Lewis 77 68, Cliff Kresge (USA) 72 73, Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa) 73 72
146 Dean Burmester (Rsa) 77 69, Jack Singh Brar 79 67, Renato Paratore (Ita) 77 69, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 73 73
147 Lucas Bjerregaard (Den) 76 71, Anders Hansen (Den) 74 73, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 74 73, Stephen Leaney (Aus) 75 72
148 Callum Shinkwin 76 72, Sam Brazel (Aus) 71 77
149 Rikard Karlberg (Swe) 75 74, Todd Sinnott (Aus) 80 69
151 Stuart Appleby (Aus) 78 73
152 Simon Dyson 82 70

St Andrews
134 Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 67 67
135 Marcel Siem (Ger) 69 66
136 Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) 70 66, Bernd Ritthammer (Ger) 70 66
137 Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 70 67
138 Anthony Michael (Rsa) 73 65, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 73 65
139 Stephen Gallacher 72 67, Jbe Kruger (Rsa) 71 68, Gary Stal (Fra) 72 67, Nacho Elvira (Esp) 71 68, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 70 69
140 Marcus Armitage 71 69, Yi-Keun Chang (Kor) 72 68, Gavin Moynihan 70 70, Alexander Knappe (Ger) 73 67, Scott Jamieson 70 70
141 Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 74 67, Sebastian Heisele (Ger) 72 69, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den) 73 68, Stuart Manley 72 69
142 Joel Stalter (Fra) 68 74, Richie Ramsay 71 71, Grant Forrest 75 67, Andrew Dodt (Aus) 73 69, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 74 68, Alvaro Quiros (Esp) 71 71, Luca Cianchetti (Ita) 70 72, Brett Rumford (Aus) 73 69, Pavit Tangkamolprasert (Tha) 75 67, Liam Johnston 72 70, Scott Gregory 71 71
143 Peter Hanson (Swe) 71 72, Phachara Khongwatmai (Tha) 74 69, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 73 70
144 S.S.P Chawrasia (Ind) 72 72, Jorge Campillo (Esp) 73 71, Pep Angles (Esp) 72 72, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 74 70
145 Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 74 71, Alexander Bjork (Swe) 72 73, Eduardo De La Riva (Esp) 74 71
146 Sebastien Gros (Fra) 76 70
147 Nathan Kimsey 76 71
148 Sam Walker 75 73, Adrian Otaegui (Esp) 73 75, Soomin Lee (Kor) 72 76
149 Ashun Wu (Chn) 78 71
150 Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 74 76, Duncan Stewart 82 68, Byeong-Hun An (Kor) 74 76, Matthew Southgate 78 72, Johan Carlsson (Swe) 78 72, Paul Peterson (USA) 75 75, Florian Fritsch (Ger) 79 71

Carnoustie
133 Tommy Fleetwood 70 63, Tyrrell Hatton 68 65
135 Paul Dunne 67 68
136 Matt Wallace 69 67
138 Richard Bland 73 65, Brandon Stone (Rsa) 71 67
139 JB Holmes (USA) 73 66, Ross Fisher 71 68, Branden Grace (Rsa) 70 69, Oliver Fisher 68 71
140 Lasse Jensen (Den) 71 69, Graeme McDowell 69 71, Ashley Chesters 71 69, Aaron Rai 70 70, Jeunghun Wang (Kor) 69 71, Luke Donald 70 70, Pádraig Harrington 72 68, Julien Quesne (Fra) 71 69
141 Ryan Fox (Nzl) 68 73, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 71 70, Romain Langasque (Fra) 69 72, Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 69 72, Dylan Frittelli (Rsa) 70 71, Matthew Fitzpatrick 73 68
142 Rhein Gibson (Aus) 70 72, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 71 71, George Coetzee (Rsa) 69 73
143 Jason Scrivener (Aus) 72 71, Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 72 71, Shane Lowry 68 75, Jamie Donaldson 70 73, Jordan Smith 70 73
144 Rory McIlroy 73 71, Paul Waring 73 71, Ernie Els (Rsa) 74 70, Aron Price (Aus) 70 74, Lee Westwood 71 73
145 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 75 70, Daniel Brooks 72 73, Andrew Evans (Aus) 74 71, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 74 71
146 Brett Quigley (USA) 73 73, Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 73 73, Nathan Holman (Aus) 75 71, Alfie Plant 73 73
147 Chris Hanson 74 73, Justin Walters (Rsa) 74 73, Chris Paisley 74 73, Thomas Detry (Bel) 71 76, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 72 75
148 Damien Perrier (Fra) 72 76, David Howell 72 76
149 Carlos Pigem (Esp) 71 78
151 Patrick Newcomb (USA) 76 75
154 Daniel Im (USA) 76 78
156 Austin Connelly (Can) 81 75