Sam Murphy will go into the final round of the Alps Tour Q-School Final Qualifying Stage with a two-stroke lead after a sublime, bogey-free 64 in round two on the outskirts of Rome.
The former Connacht Strokeplay winner has already guaranteed himself Category 8 status on the feeder tour to the HotelPlanner Tour by making the cut, and finishing inside the top 35 will earn him Category 6 status, but after opening with a three-under 69 at Terre dei Consoli that left him sharing 10th, he moved over to Golf Nazionale with the top of the leaderboard in his sights.
Playing in the fourth-to-last group on the day, the Portumna man failed to take advantage of the par-5 opener, but from there, he picked up the pace, birdieing the par-4 second, par-3 third and par-5 seventh to make the turn at -3 for the day and -6 overall.
Another birdie on the 11th was followed by two pars, and he entered the final five holes inside the top four. But in a blistering finish, he birdied four of the five to storm to the top of the leaderboard, taking a two-stroke lead over Italy’s Luca Cavalli, with a further two-stroke gap back to French duo Hermes Ferchaud and Alexis Leray who share third.
“I played really good today; it was nice and solid all around. I struggled a little bit yesterday but found a few feelings coming home and was able to keep that momentum throughout today, and it was nice to put together a bogey-free, eight-under-par round,” Murphy said.
“This course is much more about placement compared to yesterday’s course, especially in relation to the pins. I spoke to my caddie, and you have either green- or red-light putts around here, and today I was able to have a lot of green-light putts, which was nice.
“I plan on probably turning pro after this week. I’m still competing as an amateur as we wanted to see how this week would go — and it’s obviously going well so far. I’m going to do what I did the past few days: go home and rest a bit, then go to dinner and look back at today to see what I did well and what I need to improve on for tomorrow. I’m very much looking forward to the round.”
Joining Murphy in the field for the third and final round are Cathal MacCanna and Stephen Grant, both of whom have secured Category 8 status by finishing round two inside the top 65 and ties.
MacCanna lies tied for 50th on +1 having shot a one-over 73 on Terre dei Consoli on day two, while former League of Ireland footballer Grant birdied the final hole at Golf Nazionale to card a one-under 71 that got him through by the bare minimum.
Both players have an effective free roll of the dice in tomorrow’s final round, with each place on the leaderboard enhancing their chances of securing tournament starts in 2026, and the top 35 making it virtually certain that they’ll have their pick of the Alps Tour events.
Tom Dowdall and Marc Boucher will have to settle for Category 9 status after both missed the cut on +5 and +7 respectively.
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