McDermott grinds out another fine round

The wailing wall they call the scoreboard was full of budding tour pros complaining about the stiffness of the examination.

But there wasn’t a peep out of Co Sligo’s Gary McDermott, who simply got on with the job of grinding out a score to take a two-stroke lead in the last two rounds of the Irish Amateur Open at Royal Dublin.

As many of his peers complained about what they considered the unfairness of the course in a stiff southerly crosswind that gusted to 30 mph at times, the former international birdied the 16th and 17th to add a one under 71 to his opening 69 to lead two strokes from Scotland’s Jamie Savage (68) and the Isle of Man’s Tom Gandy (71) on four under 140.