Armitage and Donaldson share Cyprus lead as darkness suspends play

Marcus Armitage and Jamie Donaldson share the lead at the Aphrodite Hills Cyprus Open on 11 under par but will need to complete their second rounds on Saturday morning as play was suspended due to fading light.

The pair will return to the course at Aphrodite Hills Resort at 8:00am local time to finish their rounds. 2014 Ryder Cup star Donaldson has one hole to finish, with 33-year-old Armitage still to putt-out on the 16th green. Welshman Donaldson is five under par for his round while Armitage, of England, is six under.

In a share of third place on ten under par are Scotland’s David Drysdale, Englishman Richard McEvoy and Finland’s Sami Välimäki. Drysdale is playing in his 509th European Tour tournament and would equal Malcolm Mackenzie’s record of events before earning his first victory if he were to win this week.


“I’ve been working hard,” said Drysdale. “To be honest I had an injury when I came back. I missed four or five events. Trying to get fit and regain some form. My scores haven’t been great but I’ve been starting to see nine holes where there has been good ball striking – that’s trending a bit.

“A lot of golf to be played. 11-under is leading at the moment – a lot of golf to be played today. Might be within two or three of the lead at the end of the day. I haven’t had that many opportunities over my career. I’ll give it a crack over the weekend and see what happens.”

Välimäki, in his rookie season on the European Tour, is seeking a second win on the 2020 Race to Dubai after earning his maiden title at the Oman Open in March. McEvoy is looking for a second European Tour success to add to his 2018 Porsche European Open win.

“Yesterday was probably actually slightly better. Tee to green I was very, very strong yesterday,” said Hebert. “I missed two fairways and one green all day so I gave myself plenty of chances. The today, a couple more small mistakes, I missed a couple more greens, but the short game was good to get out of trouble when I needed to.”

Sharing sixth place on nine under par are six golfers including Frenchman Benjamin Hébert, who carded the lowest round of the day, a seven under par 64, and India’s Shubhankar Sharma, who has made his sixth consecutive cut. 


“As professional golfers this is what you strive for, you want to be in the mix going into the weekend,” said Sharma. “It’s been a while since that has happened. I felt that at the Scottish I was quite close, I was 13th after two days. My game was coming around. The Scottish wasn’t too many weeks back. I’m really happy to be in this position and I’m looking forward to the weekend.

“Experience plays a big role. This is my third year on Tour and I’ve been in this situation many times before – that will definitely help. But, on this course, anyone can shoot a low number. If there’s no wind and it’s calm, I think there’s a ten under out there. These players are really good. You just have to stay on your toes, keep firing away and see what happens on Sunday.”


Pos.PlayerTo ParThruR1R2Total
T1Jamie Donaldson-11176565
T1Marcus Armitage-11156666
T3David Drysdale-10F6567132
T3Richard McEvoy-10F6666132
T3Sami Välimäki-10F6567132
T6Thomas Detry-9F6667133
T6Benjamin Hebert-9F6964133
T6Shubhankar Sharma-9F6766133
T6Callum Shinkwin-9F6766133
T6Jordan Smith-9F6766133
T6Johannes Veerman-9F6469133
T12Wil Besseling-8F6767134
T12Garrick Higgo-8F6866134
T12Matthias Schwab-8F6767134
T12Andy Sullivan-8F6569134
T12Mitch Waite-8F6470134
T17Aaron Cockerill-7F6966135
T17Lorenzo Gagli-7F6669135
T17David Horsey-7F6669135
T17Robert MacIntyre-7F6867135
T17Wilco Nienaber-7F6867135
T17Julian Suri-7F7065135
T17Clement Sordet-7156666
T24Alejandro Cañizares-6F7066136
T24Louis De Jager-6F6868136
T24Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño-6F6670136
T24Sebastian Heisele-6F6868136
T24Matthew Jordan-6F6967136
T24Masahiro Kawamura-6F6967136
T24Maximilian Kieffer-6F6967136
T24Adrien Saddier-6F6769136
T24Kalle Samooja-6F7066136
T24Robin Sciot-Siegrist-6F6967136
T24Jason Scrivener-6F7066136
T24Cormac Sharvin-6F6967136
T24Joël Stalter-6F6571136
T24Scott Vincent-6F6868136
T24Dale Whitnell-6F6868136
T24Jeff Winther-6F6868136
T40Jorge Campillo-5F6968137
T40Dave Coupland-5F6968137
T40Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez-5F6968137
T40James Morrison-5F6869137
T40Haydn Porteous-5F6968137
T40Antoine Rozner-5F7166137
T40Matthew Southgate-5F6869137
T40Paul Waring-5F6869137
T48Alexander Björk-4F6969138
T48Yikeun Chang-4F7365138
T48Pedro Figueiredo-4F6672138
T48Grant Forrest-4F6969138
T48Gregory Havret-4F6969138
T48Calum Hill-4F6969138
T48Mikko Korhonen-4F6870138
T48Joost Luiten-4F7068138
T48Thorbjørn Olesen-4F6969138
T48Alvaro Quiros-4F6870138
T48Ricardo Santos-4F6969138
T48Joel Sjoholm-4F6969138
T48Sebastian Soderberg-4F6969138
T48Maverick Antcliff-4176969
T62Laurie Canter-3F6772139
T62Nicolas Colsaerts-3F6970139
T62Joakim Lagergren-3F7267139
T62Romain Langasque-3F7069139
T62Matthieu Pavon-3F7168139
T62Carlos Pigem-3F6970139
T62Ashun Wu-3F6871139
T69Richard Bland-2F7070140
T69Steven Brown-2F6971140
T69Bryce Easton-2F7169140
T69Will Enefer-2F6674140
T69Oliver Farr-2F6674140
T69Jack Harrison-2F6872140
T69Sam Horsfield-2F7268140
T69Niklas Lemke-2F7367140
T69Alexander Levy-2F6872140
T69Adrian Meronk-2F7565140
T69Damien Perrier-2F6872140
T69Ben Stow-2F7070140
T69Oliver Wilson-2F6773140
T69Tapio Pulkkanen-2156969
T83Jonathan Caldwell-1F6972141
T83S.S.p. Chawrasia-1F7170141
T83Pablo Larrazabal-1F7170141
T83Toby Tree-1F7269141
T87Ewen FergusonEF7072142
T87Garrick PorteousEF7072142
T87Richie RamsayEF7369142
T87Kristoffer ReitanEF7270142
T87Robin RousselEF6973142
T92Michael Campbell1F7073143
T92Sean Crocker1F7568143
T92Ignacio Elvira Mijares1F6974143
T92Gavin Kyle Green1F7568143
T92David Howell1F7172143
T92Bernd Ritthammer1F7073143
T98Ross Fisher2F7470144
T98Jack Senior2F6777144
T100Rikard Karlberg3F7867145
T100Connor Syme3F7372145
T100Lars van Meijel3F7669145
103Marcus Kinhult4F7373146
T104Haotong Li6F7573148
T104Chris Paisley6F7177148

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