Tuner holds lead in Irish Masters

Niall Turner will take a one-shot lead over a bunched field into the final round of the Great National Hotels Irish Masters at Great National Ballykisteen Golf Hotel.

The Irishman shot a six under par second-round 66 to lead on -11 in the HotelPlanner.com PGA EuroPro Tour event at the Tipperary resort.

A trio of Englishmen - Jack Harrison (Wildwood Golf Club; 67, 67), Ben Robinson (The Vale Golf and Country Club; 68, 66) and Miles Collins (Stoke by Nayland Golf Club; 67, 67) - are one back on -10.

“All parts of my game have been pretty good so far,” said Turner. “If you drive it nicely out here you have a lot of short irons in. I have driven well so far and my wedges have been good so I have given myself a lot of birdie changes.

“This is my first time at Ballykisteen - it is a really enjoyable course to play and it is in great condition. It will probably be similar scoring tomorrow. If you get to 16 or 17 under that would be tough to beat but there is a very low one out there so you are going to need to keep making birdies.

“I am a full Asian Tour member. I’m hoping to play some more EuroPro over the summer but I missed Q School as I was over in Asia, so hopefully a good finish this week and I can play some more EuroPro over the summer.”

Chris Lloyd (The Kendleshire; 69, 67) and Mark Staunton (Delgany Golf Club; 69, 67) share fifth on eight under and there are nine golfers a further shot behind.

A cut to the leading 50 players and ties has now been made with all those three under par or better advancing to play Friday’s final round.

Spectator entry is free of charge and live scoring can be found at www.europrotour.com. Extensive highlights of the event will be broadcast on Sky Sports on Tuesday, May 23.