Streeter fights his way to the top

Former champion Paul Streeter hit a purple patch on the greens to surge into the lead at the halfway stage of the PGA Play-Offs at Saunton Golf Club.

The Lincoln Golf Centre pro, who won this title in 2007, reeled off five birdies on the front nine to set the pace in the £15,000 event.

While closing bogeys took the shine off the round, his three-under-par 68 was still enough to give him a one stroke advantage over Beedles Lakes’ Matt Cort who added a second 69.

Benign weather greeted the 24-strong field and Streeter wasted little time in capitalising on the favourable conditions at the Devon links – holing a tricky putt on the first and then getting up and down from a bunker.

“I had a good chance on the third too, then holed a 20 footer on six, hit it stone dead on eight and made an eight footer on nine,” said Streeter.

“It was looking like one of those days and then the putter went cold.”

Further chances came and went on 10, 11, 13 and 16 before he missed an eight footer for par on 17 and three putted the last.

“I read it as left half and it swung a lot more than I thought and missed the hole,” admitted Streeter.

 “I think now the greens have dried out, they are just taking a bit more break, when they were damper you could hit them straight and they would go in so obviously I need to recalculate.

“But like I said yesterday, my aim is to shoot under par every round, if I win great – if I don’t so be it, but if I shoot under par the next two rounds I’ll be happy.”

Behind the leading pair, a bunched leaderboard features two Irishmen – Neil O’Briain and Damien McGrane – a Scotsman – Greig Hutcheon – and Englishman – Andrew Willey – who are three shots adrift of Streeter at two-under-par.

Robert Coles from Maylands in Essex is also in the mix having carded a best of the day 65 which included eight birdies and leaves him one under par for the 72-hole tournament alongside Graham Fox and Colm Moriarty.

"I had a bad day yesterday and I had a bad opening hole today - so I was six over par for the tournament and I wasn't feeling too good about it,” said Coles.

"I hit a couple of shots close on the front nine and managed to do quite well by the turn. From the 11th I started making some putts which really helped the score.

"I started to give myself some chances and I had a bit of luck here and there which was nice. "I am relieved to be back in the realms of contention."

The top ten finishers are guaranteed a place in next year’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth while there are two places up for grabs at the British Masters as well three spots in the Great Britain & Ireland PGA Cup team.