Pavon still on top at Italian Open, Irish trio miss the cut

France's Matthieu Pavon maintained his two-shot lead at the halfway stage of the DS Automobiles Italian Open, as Irish interest in the competition ended with Gary Hurley, John Murphy and Tom McKibben all missing the cut.

All three Irishmen were in decent shape going into the day but Hurley finished best of them after his round of 72 saw him the day on +4, two shots off the cut of +2.

McKibben started the day on -1 but a disastrous round of 79 saw him exit the tournament on +7.

Murphy fared even worse, shooting three double bogeys on the way to a round of 81. He exited the tournament on +10.

Pavon followed an opening 63, his lowest-ever round on the DP World Tour, with a 70 on Friday to reach nine under par, with compatriot Julien Guerrier and Spain's Adrian Otaegui on seven under.

Poland's Adrian Meronk is a shot further back after a second consecutive 68.

Starting on the back nine at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club, Pavon threatened to leave the field trailing in his wake when he carded a hat-trick of birdies from the 11th, but dropped three shots over the next 13 holes before closing with a 57-foot birdie on the ninth.

"Quite an up and down day," Pavon said. "I started quite fast with a lot of good shots, made some birdies earlier on and that was great, but then I made some mistakes.

"Nothing really big but when you miss something here it feels like it is really tough to get the up and down done, so I dropped a few shots.

"I was a bit tired in the end also after a poor night yesterday, so to finish my round under par I am really happy."

Defending champion Robert MacIntyre had earlier been forced out of the tournament due to a back injury less than an hour before he was due to tee off alongside home favourite Guido Migliozzi