Tom McKibbin hung tough to survive the cut in the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek in South Africa, but the Belfast man – who celebrates his 22nd birthday next week – has a lot of work to do over the weekend in the co-sanctioned event to catch midway leader Marcus Kinhult.
Kinhult, whose only DP World Tour win came in the 2019 British Masters and without a top 10 since a runner-up finish in the KLM Open back in June, added a second round 68 to his opening 65 for a midway total of 11-under-par that gave him a three strokes lead over the trio of Dean Burmester, Dale Whitnell and Andrea Pavan.
For McKibbin, it proved to be an uncharacteristically roller-coaster round of four birdies and five bogeys as he signed for a 73 for 142 to sit nine shots off the pace.
Conor Purcell, competing for the first time as a fully-fledged DP World Tour card member, suffered two bogeys in his closing four holes in signing for a 71 to add to his opening 75 for 146, ultimately three shots too many to make the cut. The Dubliner heads on to next week’s Mauritius Open, another dual event with the Sunshine Tour.
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In the LIV Golf Promotions event in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, former Walker Cup star Mark Power narrowly failed to make it into the top 20 who progressed to the final day’s 36 holes where the winner will earn a card to the megabucks circuit.
Having made it through Thursday’s opening round (after which the scores were reset), Power carded a two-under-par 69 on day two to finish in tied-26th, one stroke out of a play-off for the 20th spot which was claimed by American Ollie Schniederjans. Scott Vincent claimed solo lead with a 63 headed into Saturday’s final two rounds.
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