Ireland’s struggling Peter Lawrie has kept alive hopes of retaining his Tour card and also ending a miserable run of missing six halfway cuts in succession by easily fighting his way into the final two rounds of the Perth International.
Lawrie’s 25,000 kilometre round trip to the world’s most remote capital city has seen the current 114th Race to Dubai ranked Dubliner post scores of 73 and 70 for a one under par tally on the Lake Karrinyup course in suburban Perth.
Peter Lawrie keeps alive hopes of holding onto his Tour card. (Photo – www.golffile.ie)
It had Lawrie in a share of 23rd place late on the second day and six shots behind England’s Ross Fisher who posted scores of 72 and 67 for the clubhouse lead on five under par.
And as reported exclusively this week by www.golfbytourmiss.com Lawrie’s efforts have been enhanced with his decision to have super caddy John ‘Ronnie’ Roberts help call this shots in his final event of the season.
‘Ronnie’ is the regular caddy to local Perth-born Brett Rumford and the Bournemouth bagman has a side bet this week with Rumford who has his brother caddying for him for just this week.
The bet is for Lawrie to finish ahead of Rumford, and late on day two the Aussie was trailing one shot behind the Irishman.
As well, fellow Irishman David Higgins could also manage to retain automatic 2014 Tour membership after scores of 73 and 72 for a one over par tally and a share of 48th place and two strokes inside the expected cut-off mark of three over par.
Higgins arrived in Perth lying 115th on the Race to Dubai and needing firstly to make the cut to also boost his hopes.
The Waterville golfing ace has done that and his goal has been helped firstly by the European Tour announcing the cut-off point for 2014 Race to Dubai membership will go down to 112.
Secondly, three players ahead of Higgins on the Race to Dubai will miss the cut with South African James Kingston, ranked 111th, posting scores of 74 and 73 for a three over par tally and Frenchman Alexander Levy, who teed up at 108th on the money list, also at three over par with rounds of 74 and 73.
Also Dawie Van Der Walt of South Africa, and 107th on the money list, crashed to second last place on 16-over par with rounds of 78 and 80.
