SIMON Townend's dream of a place at The Open was still alive today as he teed off in the second round of final qualifying at Downfield.

But Ged Furey's chances of a trip to Carnoustie hung in the balance after a double bogey on the 16th yesterday marred his attempts to qualify for the Open for the first time in over a decade.

With 12 places up for grabs at each of the four qualifying venues, Townend knew he had to produce something special to keep himself in the hunt.

And he did just that with a superb two-under-par 71 which gave him a share of 16th place at the halfway mark.

But Townend, who is attached to Wilpshire, will need to fare even better than that today as over a dozen players carded opening round scores of sub-70.

American Tom Gillis, Zimbabwe's Sean Farrell and Dunbar's David Drysdale set the pace at Downfield with six-under-par rounds of 67.

Pleasington professional Furey looked bang on course for his first Open appearnce since Royal Lytham in 1988 after finding himself three-under after 15 at Montrose yesterday.

But a double bogey on the 16th pegged back the former European Tour player and he had to settle for a one-under-par round of 70 at the halfway stage.

That left him seven shots behind Sweden's Per-Ulrik Johansson and New Zealand's Michael Long, whose eight-under-par rounds of 63 knocked three strokes off the course record set by Gabriel Hjertstedt earlier in the day.

But Simon Eaton's challenge looks like being over for another year after he had a distastrous time on the Montrose course.

The 23-year-old, who is head assistant at Burnley, fired a three-over-par 74 on his first appearance in the final qualifiers.

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