Glaswegian Ewen Ferguson muscled his way to near the top of the board grabbing four birdies over his closing six holes in a 67 on day two of a weather affected Dubai Duty Free Irish Open.
Ferguson, 24 had moved to four-under and into a then share of second but only to drop a shot at the last in very cold and windy conditions on the Galgorm course near Ballymena in Northern Ireland.
England’s Aaron Rai, who shared the first-round lead, was in the clubhouse very late in the day still leading by a shot at five-under with scores of 65 and 70.
The second day of the 65th Irish Open was delayed 90-minutes due to overnight frost and with Ferguson’s opening nine holes very much a mirror of his outward nine a day earlier.
Ferguson again birdied the second and also bogeyed the sixth for a second time while he is also now two-under playing the ninth and bizarrely, he then dropped a shot at 11 for a second occasion.
Ferguson broke the mould with a hat-trick of birdies from the 13th to move to three-under for his round and then four-under in holing out at 17 but then only to drop a shot on 18, and after both a long birdie putt and his par attempt ‘lipped out’.
He said: “Although I am a little annoyed right now after bogeying the last, I played really good. I was just trying to stick to one shot at a time, fairways and greens, and not over-complicate it.
“I’m just going to keep playing and just try and enjoy the moment that I’m in, being in contention at a European Tour event is a dream come true in the first place. I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing and make sure I learn from each mistake and each good thing as well, which are inevitably going to happen.”
Aberdonian David Law putted out in near darkness with a second straight 69 to be two under as did Callum Hill in a one-over 70 to be at level.
The delay to play meant 27 of the 119-player field did not manage to finish their rounds including lone Scot Liam Johnston struggling at 11-over par and with three holes to play.
COMPLETED SCOTTISH SECOND ROUNDS …
137 – Ewen Ferguson
138 – David Law
140 – Callum Hill
141 – Stephen Gallacher
144 – Craig Howie
145 – Richie Ramsay, Scott Jamieson
147 – David Drysdale
149 – Connor Syme
152 – Marc Warren, Daniel Young