Ireland’s Paul Dunne witnessed both the highs and lows of golf in the second round of the Trophee Hassan II in Morocco on Friday, making a hole in one but still missing the cut in a tournament he was runner-up in last year.
Dunne, who entered the tournament as favourite after his second-place finish in Spain last week, make a hole-in-one on the 17th after a disastrous start to his second round.
Starting on the 10th hole, Dunne was four over after three holes after opening bogey, bogey, double-bogey, before back-to-back birdies on the 14th and 15th got him back on course.
The best was yet to come as Dunne aced the 215-yard 17th to turn in level par, one over for the tournament. The momentum didn’t carry over to the front nine and he carded two bogeys and a double-bogey, a four-over 76 leaving him back on five over.
Dunne wasn’t the only Irish golfer that failed to shine on Friday as former winner Michael Hoey and Gavin Moynihan also missed the cut.
Hoey carded a seven-over 79 to move from two shots off the lead on Thursday to one shot outside the cut mark on four over. The 2012 champion carded eight bogeys and a single birdie in his round. Moynihan also carded a 76 to finish on nine over.
Spain’s Alvaro Quiros is in pole position to secure another out-of-the-blue victory after claiming the halfway lead at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam .
Quiros added a second round of 70 to his opening 67to finish seven under par and a shot ahead of Australia’s Andrew Dodt, with South Africa’s Erik van Rooyen a stroke further back.
The 35-year-old reached as high as 21st in the world in 2011, but was ranked 703rd when he won the Rocco Forte Open in Sicily last year after squandering a seven-shot lead with 12 holes to play before beating Zander Lombard in a play-off.
That lifted Quiros to 237th in the rankings, but he has made just three halfway cuts since and began the week in Rabat at 435th in the standings.
“I would love to say that I have control of my secret but I’m not able to say,” Quiros said during a commentary spell on Sky Sports. “Clearly I’m recovering a little bit of natural feel in my swing and now every single day of golf I need to recover a bit of confidence.
“A lot of times when I miss a shot, it’s not related straight to the swing movement, it’s more related to the fact that I’m not confident that things are going to come out as I want.
“It’s not going to change from one day to another but at least I have a little bit more peace in my mind with respect to the technique.”
Defending champion Edoardo Molinari, the man who beat Dunne in a playoff 12 months ago, also missed the cut after carding a 74.
