Beal wins car with one eye and one shot
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Your support makes all the difference.Andy Beal, who lost his left eye to cancer last December, won himself a £15,000 car for a hole-in-one yesterday. In only his second tour event since the surgery, Beal aced the 179-yard 14th in the second round of the Great North Open here. The prize comes a week before the 36-year-old from Salisbury goes for a driving test to make sure his vision is good enough.
Asked how many holes-in-one he has had in his life, a delighted Beal said: "One on the Challenge Tour and a few in friendlies – but this is my first with one eye." And asked if he had seen his six iron go into the cup he replied: "No, the hole's uphill and a bit blind."
Beal's feat went some way to ensuring that his two over par total of 146 – he shot a level par 72 – just made the half-way cut. He will go into the third round, however, 10 strokes behind the leader, Germany's Sven Struver, who produced a brilliant 65.
Struver is only playing the event because his wife Stephanie told him to. She gave birth 10 weeks ago and their new baby son Johan has been suffering from colic. "He's awake from nine in the evening until about three in the morning and I've been getting about three hours sleep a night," the 34-year-old said. "We also have a daughter who wants entertaining and I actually didn't want to come, but my wife said 'go away and get some sleep'."
After catching up in that department, Struver missed equalling the Australian Richard Green's course record by only one – and did it despite missing out at all the par fives. He birdied five of his first seven holes to turn in 31 and then picked up further shots on the 412-yard third and tough 453-yard ninth, where he hit a four wood to five feet.
For the second day running the Welshman Bradley Dredge climbed into a share of the lead only to fall back again. But at least it was not the 463-yard 18th that got the better of the 28-year-old this time. In the first round he double-bogeyed the last. Dredge managed a par four on his return, but he still had the front nine to come and he bogeyed the last three of them. That sent the Tredegar player down to five under, three behind Struver.
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