Paul Dunne, Jonathan Caldwell and Cormac Sharvin all missed the cut at the British Masters to end the Irish involvement in the tournament.
Dunne and Caldwell both ended up on seven over in a tie for 137th at the halfway stage after second rounds of 74 and 75 respectively. Dunne started his second round solidly, taking the turn on level par after a bogey and a birdie cancelled each other out, only for four dropped shots and another birdie on the back nine to leave him at three over for the day.
Caldwell took the turn at two over and there he stayed after two bogeys negated the two shots he did pick up.
Sharvin was always going to struggle to make the cut after a first round 81. His second effort of 76 left him 13 shots off the cut mark of level par.
Tournament host Danny Willett has designs on presenting the trophy to himself after surging into contention.
Willett was three over par after 12 holes of his first round and feared making an early exit from the event before having to return on Sunday evening to hand the silverware to the winner.
Two late birdies meant the former Masters champion eventually signed for an opening 73 and he carried on where he left off on Friday, making eight more birdies and a sole bogey on the ninth, his final hole of the day.
“Today felt like myself (playing), yesterday felt like my brother,” joked Willett, whose 65 gave him a total of six under par, three shots behind halfway leader Hurly Long.
“I wasn’t quite expecting that. I giggled to myself, I think we were 99th on the 16th green last night and then looked up there today and we were fifth. It’s a pretty decent effort.”
It was a doubly impressive performance from Willett given his numerous hosting duties, with last year proving far easier due to the absence of spectators because of coronavirus restrictions.
“I didn’t have to do anything last year apart from a lot of Zoom calls,” Willett added. “I had a lot of spare time last year, no one here for pictures and that sort of stuff and I think it does make a difference
“I found myself pretty tired Wednesday night, Thursday morning and then that five hours on the golf course is the time when you’re in your own little box, kind of the quiet place this week.
“It would be amazing to win the British Masters regardless of whether you’re hosting or not. It’s a big event, there’s been some great winners, some great hosts.
“But to be able to pass myself the trophy would be a pretty cool experience. There’s still a long way to go but we can all hope and dream.
“It’s a nice feeling to be here for the weekend and play in front of family and friends and for probably 26, 27,000 people to be coming in the gates over the weekend is going to feel fantastic around this place.”
Long started his second round from the 10th with a run of nine straight pars but then birdied five of his next six holes and was two shots clear of the field until a bogey on the ninth, his final hole of the day.
The resulting 68 left the 26-year-old on nine under par and a shot ahead of Scotland’s Richie Ramsay and Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen, with another Dane, Rasmus Hojgaard, a stroke further back.
Long is in his rookie season on the DP World Tour but finished third and second in back-to-back starts earlier this year and believes that experience will stand him in good stead over the weekend.
“I think that’s certainly going to help me,” said Long, who was born in Heidelberg to an American father (Tom, a golf professional) and a German mother.
“I’ve been in this situation before. I’m really looking forward to it, there’s a lot of good players near the top of the leaderboard so it should be a good test and a lot of fun.”
Ramsay added a bogey-free second round of 69 to his opening 67 and has dropped just one shot in the first 36 holes after benefitting from a pep talk from long-time coach and confidant, Ian Rae, on Tuesday.
“He was saying to just remember what a good player I am,” Ramsay said. “I know where I want to get to in the next two years, and I feel that if I can get to the end of next year, I’m going to be free to do anything I want.”
Asked if that was hinting at a life away from golf, the former US Amateur champion added: “You just realise you don’t have all the time in the world.
“And, as much as golf is important, there are other things in life that are more important to me. You’ve just got to be your best every day. If that’s not enough, I can walk away with my head held high.”
Collated second round scores in the European Tour Betfred British Masters hosted by Danny Willett, The Belfry, Sutton Coldfield
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, Par 72):
135 Hurly Long (Ger) 67 68
136 Thorbjoern Olesen (Den) 66 70, Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 70 66, Richie Ramsay 67 69
137 Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den) 68 69
138 Danny Willett 73 65, Sebastian Soederberg (Swe) 70 68, Marcus Armitage 71 67, Justin Walters (Rsa) 68 70
139 Ashun Wu (Chn) 67 72, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 66 73, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 70 69, Paul Waring 70 69
140 Sam Horsfield 71 69, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 70 70, Julien Brun (Fra) 71 69, Daan Huizing (Ned) 69 71, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 69 71
141 Robert MacIntyre 74 67, Thomas Detry (Bel) 74 67, Adrian Otaegui (Spa) 71 70, Jordan Smith 69 72, Jazz Janewattananond (Tha) 73 68, George Coetzee (Rsa) 71 70, Gavin Green (Mal) 71 70, Richard Mansell 71 70
142 Thriston Lawrence (Rsa) 72 70, Adria Arnaus (Spa) 70 72, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 68 74, Joost Luiten (Ned) 71 71, Callum Shinkwin 73 69, Connor Syme 74 68, Eddie Pepperell 73 69, Yannik Paul (Ger) 71 71, Espen Kofstad (Nor) 71 71, Robin Roussel (Fra) 71 71
143 Brandon Stone (Rsa) 68 75, Victor Perez (Fra) 71 72, Justin Harding (Rsa) 70 73, Daniel van Tonder (Rsa) 71 72, Jamie Donaldson 69 74, Darius van Driel (Ned) 74 69, Romain Langasque (Fra) 76 67, Jack Singh-Brar 72 71, Santiago Tarrio (Spa) 72 71, Frederic Lacroix (Fra) 72 71, Chase Hanna (USA) 70 73, Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 71 72, Joel Stalter (Fra) 74 69, J. C. Ritchie (Rsa) 73 70
144 Rafael Cabrera (Spa) 74 70, John Catlin (USA) 71 73, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 70 74, Ben Schmidt 71 73, Jason Scrivener (Aus) 70 74, James Morrison 71 73, Matthew Southgate 71 73, Sebastian Garcia (Spa) 73 71, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 73 71, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 72 72, Oliver Bekker (Rsa) 75 69, Hugo Leon (Chi) 71 73, Niklas Noergaard Moeller (Den) 72 72, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 69 75, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 72 72, Richard McEvoy 72 72, Pep Angles (Spa) 75 69, David Coupland 72 72
145 Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den) 72 73, Richard Bland 73 72, Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 72 73, Johannes Veerman (USA) 72 73, Greig Hutcheon 74 71, Alexander Bjoerk (Swe) 69 76, Laurie Canter 71 74, Francesco Laporta (Ita) 69 76, Maverick Antcliff (Aus) 73 72, Wil Besseling (Ned) 73 72, Lucas Bjerregaard (Den) 73 72, Dale Whitnell 75 70, Marcel Schneider (Ger) 77 68, Ross McGowan 70 75, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 72 73, Bradley Dredge 71 74
146 Lee Westwood 72 74, Jeff Winther (Den) 70 76, Hennie Du Plessis (Rsa) 73 73, Guido Migliozzi (Ita) 72 74, Andy Sullivan 74 72, Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 75 71, Kalle Samooja (Fin) 75 71, Matthew Jordan 72 74, David Law 73 73, Julien Guerrier (Fra) 75 71, Sebastian Heisele (Ger) 72 74, Oliver Wilson 74 72, Adrien Saddier (Fra) 73 73
147 Chris Wood 72 75, Ewen Ferguson 75 72, Steven Brown 72 75, Antoine Rozner (Fra) 77 70, Adrian Meronk (Pol) 72 75, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 73 74, Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 73 74, Lukas Nemecz (Aut) 74 73, Marcel Siem (Ger) 74 73, Craig Howie 74 73, Zach Murray (Aus) 74 73, Garrick Porteous 72 75
148 Jorge Campillo (Spa) 72 76, Grant Forrest 75 73, Adam Keogh 73 75, Sean Crocker (USA) 72 76, Jack Senior 74 74, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 73 75, Marc Warren 78 70, Matthias Schmid (Ger) 79 69, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 76 72, Shiv Chawrasia (Ind) 74 74, Niklas Lemke (Swe) 74 74
149 Dean Burmester (Rsa) 75 74, Stephen Gallacher 77 72, David Horsey 72 77, Rikard Karlberg (Swe) 74 75, Scott Jamieson 77 72, Nicolai von Dellingshausen (Ger) 72 77, Robert Rock 75 74, Haotong Li (Chn) 74 75, Ricardo Santos (Por) 75 74
150 Daniel Gavins 74 76, Ignacio Elvira (Spa) 73 77, Harley Smith 75 75, Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 75 75, Ross Fisher 76 74, Ricardo Gouveia (Por) 74 76, Oliver Fisher 72 78
151 Jonathan Caldwell 77 74, Renato Paratore (Ita) 76 75, Paul Dunne 76 75, Andrew Wilson 77 74
152 Sami Valimaki (Fin) 79 73, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 78 74, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 74 78, Graeme Storm 77 75
153 Ashley Chesters 80 73, Tom Lewis 76 77, Ben Stow 78 75
154 David Drysdale 75 79
155 Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 78 77, Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 77 78
156 Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 75 81
157 Cormac Sharvin 81 76, David Howell 83 74, Aaron Cockerill (Can) 81 76
160 Chris Paisley 80 80
