Cathal Butler shot a course record 64 in Newlands today and catapulted himself into a share of the lead going into tomorrow’s final round of the Leinster Students Championship.  Butler made the most of the benign conditions on day two, and he eagled the par five 2nd hole to set the tone.  He added two more birdies on the front nine to go out in 31 strokes (-4).  Three more birdies followed on the back nine and although he failed to birdie the short par five final hole, the Maynooth student did enough to claim a course record.

John Murphy was also in good form, shooting a 67 on day two.  It was a bit more complicated for Murphy as three early birdies were cancelled out by three bogies on the front nine.  Murphy hit the reset button and reeled off four consecutive birdies starting at the par three 12th.  He couldn’t add to that on the 18th but the -4 return see’s him tied for the lead alongside Butler.  Ben Murray (UCC) is the third man on -3, he shot a 68 to move from third place to tie the lead.  Mallow’s James Sugrue is in 4th place two shots behind the leading trio, Sugrue was also in the 60’s with a two under par 69 to get to -1.  Monkstown’s Sean Desmond also shot a 69 to get to back to +2 and a share of 9th place.  Gary Ward had a 12 shot swing on day two, he had a 68 today after a disappointing 80 in yesterday’s testing conditions.

The man of the day was Butler though and after a few months of poor results the Kinsale golfer is back in the groove.  “My swing felt really good today, it felt good yesterday as well only that it was very blustery” said the Kinsale man after the great round.  “There were a lot of gusts and it was very tricky, and I didn’t get rewarded for the good shots.  But today it was flat calm and it was pretty much target golf out there.  I’ve did quite a lot of work on my swing with Paul Kiely in the past few months so it’s finally starting to come together.”  And it wasn’t case of protecting a score as Butler kept on giving himself solid birdie chances.  “I drove the ball really well today, and I’ve learned that when I’m playing well to put the boot down and keep going for birdies.  I hit my only bad drive of the day on the 18th, I went into the trees but recovered and wedged on to eight feet.  I hit the birdie putt around two feet past but overall I’m delighted with the round.  There were great scores too from Gary [Ward] and John [Murphy] so hopefully there will be plenty more birdies for the Kinsale lads.  I’m really looking forward to tomorrow, hopefully there will be more good weather and a few more birdies.”

139 C BUTLER (Maynooth Scholars (a)), 75, 64; J MURPHY (Kinsale), 72, 67; B MURRAY (University College Cork), 71, 68