Lee

Slattery

Slattery had a busy outward nine, circling five birdies to three bogeys with just one par. He flipped the par switch on the back, as it was all pars coming in. His 14 GIR required 31 putts in his tour of Firestone. He is not in the field at the PGA Championship.

Last season was an excruciating one for the Englishman who finished 121st on the Race to Dubai, going 14-for-26, but missing nine cuts by just the one shot. The real problem, however, was making only one top ten. Prior to that, he had finished in the top 90 of the rankings in four successive seasons and the two-time ET winner had played at least 20 times on the main tour in 14 of the last 15 seasons. In that time he often struggled to keep his card or lost it, but he kept his head down and retrieved it at Q School or performed well with limited starts – and the crucial point is that he knows it. In fact, he told the ET’s official podcast last week that the last time he was in his current position was 2015 and, what’s more, he claimed that needing to make the most of those few starts made him sharper – in fact he won that year, one of five top tens in the year. This year he is 2-for-4 but with a best of T43 at the Mauritius Open – and the disruption to the season will make card retrieva

When he made the cut last week in Paris there was not only a sigh of relief from the Englishman, but he also accepted more than usually happy handshakes from his partners. The TV commentary team were equally fulsome, the theory being that with that guaranteed check he had taken a huge step towards saving his card for next year. A better weekend of work would have helped. He drifted from T13 to a result of T32, a ninth week on the trot without a top 30, and he heads into this week ranked 115th with the theory being that the top 118 will retain cards. He is undoubtedly clinging on because in ten course starts he has T16 in 2012 and T22 in 2013 as outliers. In his other eight efforts he never made the top 50 and missed five cuts.

The Englishman is one of the field who has prior knowledge of this week’s course and in his case the memories are fond ones, even if they are nine years old. It was back in October 2010 that he played the Challenge Tour’s Roma Open and tied together laps of 70-68-67-67 to move through the field from T40 to T24 to T17 to T8. It was one of the six top 15 finishes he has earned in 18 visits to Italy and the most recent was T3 in this tournament last June when he led by one after 54 holes. All good memories and he’ll need them because he’s 116th in the Race to Dubai, six spots shy of card retention and although he’s on a run of 8-for-9 he doesn’t have a top 20 since the Scottish Open (T9).

The Englishman didn’t enjoy much early success but changed the script with a closing 64 to take T14 in 2012. He shot 65-66 on the weekend for T9 in 2014 and shot a blistering Friday 62 when sixth two years ago. A negative spin is that he’s also missed three of his last six cuts in the event. There’s been no such inconsistency in recent starts in Europe and he’s 4-for-4 over the last two months, a run which includes T9 at the Scottish Open. Although having to settle for T40 in the Scandinavian Invitation last week, a pair of closing 67s were encouraging and he’s pelted over 73% of GIR in each of his last three starts.

With the afternoon wave getting going, the Englishman is T2 alongside Liam Johnston (F) and Edoardo Molinari (6 holes) and a single stroke behind pacesetter Robert Karlsson. After an eagle and six birdies in easier scoring conditions on day one, this was a much quieter day for the World No. 345. Starting at 10, he made his first birdie of the morning at the par-5 12th but his next deviation from par was bogey-5 at 17. On his second nine, it was pars all the way apart from one more red circle at the short third hole. Slattery has finished fourth and second here at Albatross Golf Resort the last two years and the course horse will go into the weekend with another shot at victory.

The Englishman also opened with a 65 last year before going on to claim fourth while in 2016 he finished runner-up. Add in today’s lap and he’s a combined 33-under for his last nine laps of the par 72. It took a while for Slattery to get going and he reached the ninth tee just 1-under for his lap after trading birdies at 1 and 6 with a lone bogey of the round at 2. He also took five swishes at No. 10 but he made up for it with eagle-3 on the next par 5 at 12 and also ticked 11, 15 and 18 to match his low round at Albatross Golf Resort. Gamers weren’t just leaning on his course form when picking Slattery this week as he finished tied ninth on his last European Tour appearance (Scottish Open). The World No. 345 opened with a pair of 64s there and also shot bookend 65s when T27 in the Irish Open so he’s been throwing in some low ones lately.

Not only a second 64 of the week for the Englishman, but a fourth nine of 32 at The Renaissance Club. Moreover, after two 65s last week at Lahinch in the Irish Open, he has now gone sub-66 four times in six circuits. If there was one difference in his Thursday and Friday laps it was that his second sighting of the Tom Doak design witnessed no bogeys. He cruised to the turn with three red numbers at the first, fourth and seventh, but accelerated home, ticking three in a row from the tenth and then adding a final tick at the 561-yard par-5 16th. Just as he signed his card Erik Van Rooyen joined him in the clubhouse on 14-under. Slattery’s 64 was also his first sub-70 second round of 2019.

The Englishman had an odd time of it at Lahinch in the Irish Open last week, opening with a 65 for T3 and closing with the same score, but the 74-70 he logged in-between meant that he only finished T27. However it was the first time he had made a cut in seven starts so he’ll have been pleased with the progress and this effort backs that up. He played the back nine first and shot from the blocks, ticking the tenth, 12th, 14th, 15th and 16th. His only error of the day came at the 18th with a bogey-5. He responded with red at the second, fourth and fifth to complete that third sub-66 effort in five tries. One thing to note: he hasn’t gone sub-70 in round two all 2019.

The World No. 407 started his round with five pars before getting hot with a birdie-birdie-birdie-birdie burst to turn in just 30 blows. A lone bogey of the day at No. 10 briefly halted his momentum but the Englishman joined the log-jam in T1 with gains at 13 and 16. This is his lowest round in the Irish Open where he’s missed six of 12 cuts and never made a top 20, a surprisingly poor record given that he’s played lots of links golf. T9 at the Scottish Open two years ago, Slattery came into the event having missed each of his last six cuts. He did start with 69 at Valderrama last week but crashed out after a Friday 76.