European Amateur Championship:
Donaldson Repeats Feat
By Chris Smart in Graz, Austria
Electronic Telegraph

JAMIE DONALDSON swept to the top of the leaderboard in the European Amateur Championship over the Murhof course here yesterday with a second successive 65 seven-under par.

The 24-year-old Macclesfield-based Welshman, clear of the pack in the Daily Telegraph/JJB Sports Amateur Order of Merit, required only 25 putts as he mastered this tree-lined layout.

Starting at the 10th, Donaldson who plays for Great Britain and Ireland at the end of the month in the Eisenhower Trophy, collected birdies on four of his first six holes and then after dropping a stroke when his ball was plugged in a bunker on the 16th - his seventh - he picked up yet another birdie on his way to the turn in 32 five-under-par. Putts of 10 and 15ft went in at the 10th and 11th for further birdies and he improved his position to eight under with one hole remaining, but then he became blocked by a tree at the last and suffered his only six of the round.

His 36 hole total of 130 give Donaldson a one stroke half-way advantage over Swede Carl Pettersson and Ulsterman Graeme McDowell who equalled the course record on Wednesday. McDowell yesterday dropped two strokes in the first four holes but got his act together to return a highly creditable 68 four under par.

Gary Wolstenholme leads the English challenge with a 136 total while Steven Carmichael and Barry Hume, silver medallists last year are the best-placed Scotsmen with scores of 138.

Welsh champion Kate Phillips, Scotland's Laura Wells and England's Rachel Bell are left to carry the home hopes of ending the continental monopoly of the British Girls Championship at Blairgowrie yesterday.

They are through to the last eight where they are joined by two Italians and one each from France, Sweden and Holland. But the two favourites for the title are still there in opposite halves of the draw. They are Tullia Calzavara, the Italian under-21 champion, and Audrey Riguelle, holder of the French women's title. Phillips will face Calzavara, the No 1 seed, who needed only 28 holes to beat her two opponents. The 17-year-old Cardiff girl showed her fighting qualities in beating Germany's Jessica Issler in the second round.

Details EUROPEAN AMATEUR MEN'S CH'SHIP (Murhof, Austria).-2nd rd leaders: 130-J Donaldson (Wales) 65, 65. 131-G McDowell (Ireland) 63, 68; C Pettersson (Sweden) 64, 67. 133-T Besancenez (France) 67, 66. 134-P Kylliainen (Finland) 65, 69. 135-L Storm (Denmark) 69, 66. 136-G Wolstenholme (England) 68, 68; 138-V Karhu (Finland) 70, 68; N Colsaerts (Belgium) 70, 68; B Hume (Scotland) 67, 71; S Carmichael (Scotland) 70, 68; D Griffiths (England) 67, 71; S Grewal (England) 66, 72. 139-E Molinari (Italy) 71, 68; J Lupprian (Germany) 70, 69; R McEvoy (England) 70, 69; J Mommo (Finland) 69, 70; M Thannhauser (Germany) 69, 70; A Hultman (Sweden) 68, 71; S O'Hara (Scotland) 71,68.