Gleeson and O'Rourke tied 10th in South American Amateur; Grant 11th, Ross 22nd
Alex Gleeson (Castle). Picture by Pat Cashman
Castle’s Alex Gleeson and Naas’ Conor O’Rourke are tied for seventh place at halfway in the South American Amateur Championship in Argentina.
UCD’s Gleeson birdied three of his last seven holes to post a level par 72 and finish the day on two under par at Martindale Country Club in Buenos Aires.
The Irish Close champion bogeyed the fourth and seventh, then followed a birdie at the eighth with two more dropped shots at the 10th and 11th before birdies at the 12th, 14th and 17th allowed him to remain in touch with the leaders.
It was a similar day for O’Rourke who added a 73 to his opening 69 to join Gleeson in a four-way tie for 10th, seven strokes behind leader Marcos Montenegro of Argentina.
O’Rourke started on the back nine and birdied the 13th to go to four under par for the championship.
But he ran up a double bogey seven at the 17th and had to dig deep, eventually covering his homeward nine in level par thanks to a birdie at the short fourth and a closing bogey five.
Montenegro followed his first round 65 with a 70 to lead by two strokes on nine under par 135 from Mexico’s Fernando Cruz Valle (70-67) and Chile’s Joaquin Niemann (71-66).
In the women’s championship, Lisburn’s Paula Grant fell eight places to joint 11th after she added a 75 to her opening 70.
Grant had two birdies, three bogeys and a double bogey on her card and at one over par she’s six shots adrift of Delfina Acosta (72-67) and Mexico’s Isabella Fierro (68-71).
They lead by four strokes from Paraguay’s Sofia Garcia with a further seven players tied for fourth on level par 144.
Clandeboye’s Jessica Ross is tied for 22nd on six over after an adventurous 74 featuring four birdies, one bogey, one double bogey and a triple bogey six.
South American Amateur Championship
