MADEIRA OPEN: A new "chilled out" attitude helped Michael Hoey continue his bid for a first European Tour title today. The 30-year-old former British amateur champion added a five-under-par 66 to his opening 69 to reach halfway on seven-under par at the Madeira Islands Open BPI-Portugal on Porto Santo.
Hoey leads by one from fellow Irishman Michael McGeady, who in the last match of the day double-bogeyed the final hole, Ryder Cup Swede Joakim Haeggman and Argentina’s Estanislao Goya.
Back in 2001 and just 21 at the time, Hoey followed his win in the British amateur championship with an 11th place finish in the Scottish Open and then helped a Walker Cup team also featuring Luke Donald, Graeme McDowell and Nick Dougherty to victory in America.
They have all gone on to taste Tour success, but since missing the cut at the 2002 Masters by a single stroke Hoey has made six trips to the qualifying school. Last November was the first time he came through it, but two months ago he was joint second behind Retief Goosen in the Africa Open and now is hoping to go one better.
“I’m taking a more relaxed view and it’s paying off so far,” he said after today’s round. “You can put yourself under too much pressure in this game and I just told myself to chill out basically.”
Four of his six birdies came in his first six holes, the last of them when he was only a foot away from a hole-in-one at the 128-yard 15th.
Damien McGrane and Haeggman were the overnight leaders, but the Meathman double-bogeyed the short fifth in his 72. Compatriot McGeady is playing only his second Tour event after suffering real agony at the qualifying school four months ago.
A closing par would have given the 30-year-old from Buncrana a card, but he bogeyed it.
His finish today will not hurt as much as that because he still has 36 holes to repair the damage, but after six birdies and no bogeys in his previous 17 holes it took a lot of the gloss off his day’s work.
Spaniard Carlos Rodiles was round in 65 to move to four under and joint fifth place with McGrane, but that stood as a course record for the new Seve Ballesteros lay-out for only a few minutes as England’s Richard Bland improved 14 strokes on his opening 78 to get back to level par.
Jonathan Caldwell and Simon Caldwell will both sit out the weekend after finishing on eight-over and 18-over respectively.
Collated second round scores
(Irl & Gbr unless stated,
Irishin bold, par 71):
135 Michael Hoey69 66
136Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 66 70, Michael McGeady69 67, Estanislao Goya (Arg) 68 68
138 Damien McGrane66 72, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 73 65
140Carl Suneson (Spa) 68 72
141Wil Besseling (Ned) 69 72, Anthony Wall 72 69, Andrew Butterfield 68 73, Stuart Davis 70 71, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 72 69, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 71 70
142Richard Bland 78 64, Jan Are Larsen (Nor) 71 71, Scott Drummond 71 71, Paul Broadhurst 70 72
143Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 69 74, Ulrich Van Den Berg (Rsa) 74 69, Paul Waring 69 74, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 71 72, Birgir Hafthorsson (Ice) 73 70, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 75 68, Clodomiro Carranza (Arg) 74 69, Matthew Mills 73 70
144Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 69 75, Garry Houston 71 73, Liam Bond 75 69, Branden Grace (Rsa) 72 72, Anthony Snobeck (Fra) 75 69, Gary Clark 71 73, Alexandre Rocha (Bra) 74 70, David Drysdale 72 72, Michele Reale (Ita) 71 73
145Martin Wiegele (Aut) 76 69, Jesus Maria Arruti (Spa) 70 75, Richard McEvoy 70 75, Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe) 72 73, Marcel Siem (Ger) 75 70, Javier Colomo (Spa) 71 74, Marc Cayeux (Zim) 73 72
146Carlos Del Moral (Spa) 74 72, Christian Nilsson (Swe) 71 75, Roope Kakko (Fin) 74 72, David Griffiths 72 74, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 72 74, David Horsey 73 73, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 77 69, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 72 74, Iain Pyman 76 70, Bradley Dredge 72 74
147Nathan T Smith (USA) 75 72, Richie Ramsay 73 74, Ake Nilsson (Rsa) 73 74, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 76 71, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 71 76, Petter Bocian (Swe) 78 69, Inder Van Weerelt (Ned) 75 72, Santiago Luna (Spa) 69 78, Ricardo Santos (Por) 74 73, James Kamte (Rsa) 76 71
148Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 76 72, Adilson Da Silva (Bra) 72 76, Robert Coles 74 74, Phillip Price 75 73, Klas Eriksson (Swe) 74 74, Callum Macaulay 74 74, Gary Boyd 72 76, John E Morgan 74 74, Nuno Campino (Por) 79 69, Costantino Rocca (Ita) 72 76, Julien Clement (Swi) 77 71, Antonio Sobrinho (Por) 75 73, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 76 72
The following players failed to make the cut
149Simon Robinson 76 73, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 78 71, Steven O'Hara 75 74, Hugo Santos (Por) 73 76, Nicolas Vanhootegem (Bel) 74 75, Dominique Nouailhac (Fra) 75 74, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 80 69, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 74 75, Thomas Feyrsinger (Aut) 75 74, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 73 76
150 Jonathan Caldwell76 74, Andrew Coltart 74 76, Simon Wakefield 75 75, Gary Lockerbie 74 76, Nuno Henriques (Por) 76 74, Sam Walker 76 74, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 79 71, Antti Ahokas (Fin) 77 73, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 71 79
151Tiago Cruz (Por) 76 75, Rolf Muntz (Ned) 77 74, Chris Wood 78 73, John Mellor 81 70, Sion Bebb 77 74, Michael Curtain (Aus) 78 73
152Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 83 69, Scott Barr (Aus) 75 77, Federico Colombo (Ita) 77 75, Andrew Willey 73 79, Ben Mason 80 72, Stuart Manley 80 72, Antonio Rosado (Por) 78 74
153Chris Gane 79 74, David Carter 75 78, Alex Haindl (Rsa) 79 74, Kane Webber (USA) 76 77, Pedro Linhart (Spa) 77 76, Graham Gordon 74 79, Eirik Tage Johansen (Nor) 80 73, Matthew Millar (Aus) 79 74, Tyrone Ferreira (Rsa) 79 74
154Andre Bossert (Swi) 75 79, Marco Ruiz (Par) 79 75, Taco Remkes (Ned) 78 76, Johan Wahlqvist (Swe) 77 77
155George Murray 83 72, Lee Slattery 76 79, Roger Chapman 75 80, Pedro Figueiredo (Por) 81 74, David Lynn 78 77
156Raphael De Sousa (Swi) 80 76, Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 79 77, Marcus Higley 81 75, Lars Brovold (Nor) 83 73, Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (Spa) 83 73, Manuel Violas (Por) 83 73, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 81 75
157Peter Baker 82 75
158Joao Pedro Sousa (Por) 81 77
159Antonio Dantas (Por) 79 80, Simon Griffiths 82 77, Philip Golding 83 76
160Peter Whiteford 83 77, Simon Thornton83 77
161Christopher Doak 79 82
162Nicolas Meitinger (Ger) 85 77
164Luke Gough 80 84, Duarte Freitas (Por) 88 76
178Goncalo S Braga (Por) 88 90
RTD: Matthew Morris
