Kjeldsen in First at Irish Open


Søren Kjeldsen broke a six-player logjam atop the leaderboard at the Irish Open by carding a 4-under 67 on Saturday to take a two-stroke edge in the European Tour event at Royal County Down in Northern Ireland.

The 40-year-old Dane was 6-under through 16 holes before bogeys on the final two holes brought him back to 7-under 206, a couple of shots lower than Spain's Rafa Cabrera-Bello (69) and German Maximilian Kieffer, who shot the low round of the tournament and set a new course record with a 6-under 65.

"If you had given me 67 stood on the first tee I would have been very happy. I played terrific all day and didn't think I did too much wrong on the last two holes, so I will focus on the first 16," said Kjeldsen after his round played in chilly but dry weather.

"Competition is pretty hard out here. It's not easy to win and it's not like I have played poorly for six years, but it's nice to have a chance and it would mean everything to win this event. But it's too early to think about that. There are a lot of great players behind me and I need to play well (on Sunday) to have a chance. It's still that open."

Kjeldsen began Saturday sharing the lead with Austria's Bernd Wiesberger, Scotland's Richie Ramsay, Cabrera-Bello, and Englishmen Tyrrell Hatton and Chris Wood. Wiesberger, Ramsay and Hatton all carded 70s to drop into a tie of fourth at 209, while Wood posted a 75.

Alone in seventh is Sweden's Niclas Fasth (67), while tied for eighth at 1-under 212 are England's Anthony Wall (68) and Luke Donald (72), South African Jake Roos (68) and Denmark's Lucas Bjerregaard (66).

The shot of the day was executed by Cabrera-Bello, who drove the par-4 16th and sank the eagle putt. "It's been really tough out there, lots of wind, pretty cold and playing in control of my game most of the time," the 31-year-old told the European Tour's website. "I think it's going to put me in a great position for tomorrow."

Rickie Fowler, the highest-ranked player at No. 10 left in the field after top-ranked Rory McIlroy and No. 8 Sergio Garcia missed the 36-hole cut, posted a 76 to drop into a tie for 36th at 5-over 218.

The winner of last week's BMW PGA Championship, An Byoeng-hun, fired a 67 to enter Sunday's final round at even-par 213. .

For all the scores, visit http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2015/tournamentid=2015040/leaderboard/index.html?showLeaderboard=Y.