Elaine Pushman on the ninth hole at the Slottsbanan Castle course (00731851)

LADIES’ golf team manager Lynne Cottignies thinks the girls could be looking at an overall fourth or fifth placing after a tentative start on the course.

Although for three of the team yesterday’s results were much improved, Cottignies is doubtful the ladies can now retain their team title, citing tough courses and even tougher opposition as the obstacles.

She said: ‘The girls are finding, in general, that the competition is much stiffer and the courses much tougher than in Rhodes, and it’s something that we hadn’t expected. Probably after two rounds I’d say we’re looking at fourth or fifth. The quality of the opposition is much stronger this year.’

Gloria Paradiso and Elaine Pushman both bettered their scores from Tuesday, Paradiso finishing nine over par on 81, and Pushman on 88, while Alex Mollin added two from Tuesday’s result to finish in 82.

Olivia Jordan-Higgins played a good front nine and conquered the back in 37 to finish up two over .

Cottignies said: ‘Olivia personally feels her momentum is getting a little bit better, although she would have preferred to have had two slightly better rounds. If she hadn’t had some problems on the back nine yesterday she might have been in better contention in the individual competition, but we’ll see what happens. The greens, actually, are in a better condition than we expected them to be – they had been panicking about them, but they weren’t that bad at all. They are quite a bit faster than what we’re used to, though.’

Gavin O’Neill, meanwhile, continued a recent run of good form with a great second round yesterday afternoon – O’Neill finished up one under par and is now jointly topping the individual leader board.

Team mate Christy McLaughlin also had a good round, scoring one over par with a birdie on the 18th, and youngster Sam Crenan is also up there, on two over.

Team manager Peter Crenan said: ‘We had a better day than on Tuesday – after the second round, as a team, we’re two over. Gavin is one under, Christy is one over, Sam is two over and Andy is four over. We’re nine shots behind Bermuda in the team competition and we’ve moved up to second, ahead of Aland and the Isle of Man. Gavin is playing really, really well, and he’s jointly leading the individual scores, so we’re very much still in there, we’re not out of the running yet.

‘Some of the ground on this course is a bit patchy, but overall it’s not too bad, and there are probably more birdie opportunities. Our next round is on the other course, though, so it’s just going to be a case of getting round without doing too much damage to our scores.’