Paul Dunne continued his fine start to life as a professional golfer as he carded a second round 70 to move to 10 under par and sit a shot off the lead in the Dunhill Links.
While Dunne couldn’t quite manage a repeat of his opening day heroics, where he landed a hole-in-one on his way to an eight under par 64 at Kingsbarns, the 22-year-old was solid at St Andrews on Friday, making three birdies and dropping just one shot.
Returning to the Old Course and the scene of his British Open heroics, the Greystone golfer got his second round off to a flying start with a birdie three on the opening hole.
Dunne then dropped a shot on the fourth but took it back sraight away with a four on the par five fith.
He reached the turn on nine under par before a birdie on the 10th gave him the opportunity to forge ahead on the back nine.
However Dunne failed to kick on, parring his way home and signing for a 70 which leaves him right in contention heading into Saturday’s round at Carnoustie.
Dunne’s familiarity with links courses has put him in good stead thus far, he said: “There’s a comfort level of playing on links courses and once you get out there it does not matter if you are an amateur or a pro, there is still a golf ball sitting in front of you that needs to be hit.
“I’m really not thinking about the money. The money will take care of itself. If I keep playing good golf I won’t have to worry about money. It would be nice to get a payday at the end of the week, but we won’t find that out until Sunday evening.”
Ahead of Dunne on 11 under are English duo Jimmy Mullen and Anthony Wall, who shot 68 and 69 respectively on Friday, also at St Andrews.
Mullen, who starred alongside Dunne in Great Britain and Ireland’s Walker Cup win, is also making his professional debut this week, and like Dunne will play Carnoustie on Saturday.
“I know I’ve played the easier of the courses,” he said. “I’m playing Carnoustie tomorrow so I knew I had to do two good rounds in the first two days to take a bit of the pressure off myself.
“I’ve played very well at Carnoustie this year so I mean to stick to my game plan which me and my coach and (caddie) Alex (Howie) discussed.”
“I was just out there trying to enjoy it and learn and to be at the top of the leaderboard is, I can’t really explain,” he said. “It’s a different experience but I’ll just have to learn that as I go along.”
“The hardest bit for me is you watch all the players growing up from when I was a junior and just realising that you’re playing against them now and seeing them on the range.
“I’m still a bit like: ‘Oh look, there’s Kaymer’ and all the people like that so I’m just trying to let them do what they do and just concentrate on what I do. I think I’ve managed to stick to that quite well over the last two rounds.”
Dunne is joined on 10 under by Jamie Donaldson, Chris Stroud and Thorbjorn Olesen, who all played the low scoring Kingsbarns on day two.
Elsewhere Graeme McDowell remained in contention after carding a three under par round of 69 at Kingsbarns, leaving him seven under for the tournament following his opening 68 at Carnoustie on Thursday.
McDowell’s Kingsbarns round was blemish free, as he picked up birdies on three, six and nine to move within four of the lead.
It was also a good day for Darren Clarke at Kingsbarns, the 2011 Open winner shooting a four under par 68, while Peter Lawrie slipped back a shot to four under after a one over par 73 at St Andrews.
Shane Lowry enjoyed a better second day after he signed for a 69 at Kingsbarns, but he remains 10 shots off the lead following his opening 73 at Carnoustie.
