Todd Clements burst into the lead on the second day of the Irish Challenge and will take a two-stroke advantage into the weekend at The K Club.
The Englishman posted a fine seven under round of 65 to move to 13 under par, two clear of Irish duo John Murphy and Conor Purcell who share second place on 11 under par at the end of another largely benign day in County Kildare.
The 25-year-old is in good form with two top tens in his last four European Challenge Tour starts, as well as a tie for 26th place at last week’s Cazoo Classic on the DP World Tour, and he is riding the crest of a wave at The K Club.
“I played great the last couple of days,” he said. “I've just been working on quite a few things in my game, socially, mentally, which has kind of really helped over the last couple of days. It's turned into some good golf, so I'm delighted.”
Clements is refusing to look too far ahead and will not be drawn into looking at leaderboards while on course, instead focussing on his own game.
“I holed a couple of good putts down nine and ten, nine is a strong hole, making three there and then following up with a nice putt on ten.
“There’s a lot of golf left to be played, it’s quite a packed leaderboard I’m sure, then I’ll just keep focussing on my job, doing what I can and see where we end up on Sunday.”
England’s Harry Ellis is fourth on ten under par, with Italian Stefano Mazzoli, France’s Gary Stal and Scot Craig Ross sharing fifth place on five under par.
The cut fell at one under par with 67 players climbing inside the number to continue over the weekend. Clements, Purcell and Murphy will comprise the final group, teeing off at 12:00pm local time.
