areth Shaw takes in fluid as the play backs up and the temperature rises during Round 3 of the Alstom Open de France, at Le Golf National, Versailles, Paris, France. Picture: David Lloyd/www.golffile.ieEight successive weeks on the road is enough to break most people so it was no surprise that Gareth Shaw’s marathon run came to an end with a missed cut in the Swiss Challenge.

The Galgorm Castle touring professional, who made over €100,000 in two weeks by following a share of fifth on his European Tour debut in the Irish Open with a tie for 13th in the Open de France last week, added a 75 to his opening 70 to miss the cut by four shots.

Birr’s Stephen Grant missed by five shots on four over after after rounds of 74 and 72.

Grant made three birdies in his first seven holes to be just a shot outside the cut mark but doubled the 11th and triple bogeyed the 14th.

He tweeted later: “Well a double and a triple out of nowhere to miss the cut - 9 birdies and left a bunch out there actually positive as I know game is so close.”

At the top leaderboard, England’s Jamie Elson shot a five under par 66 at Golf Sempachersee to lead by two shots on 11 under par from Frenchmen Julien Guerrier (69) and Victor Riu (64), England’s Steven Tiley (65) and Korean Sihwan Kim (66), while Stuart Manley and Ben Parker, who both had a share of the first-round lead, slipped back.

Elson again attributed his low round to some fine work with the putter, saying: “It was much the same as yesterday really. I holed a lot of putts again, which was pleasing as the greens were better this morning. Yesterday they deteriorated as the day went on.

“I feel great with the putter – it’s amazing how you can change a little thing and all of a sudden the putts go in. I’ve not been practising my putting that much, but I’m just trying to relax more over my putts and obviously it’s working.”

Elson, who has had top ten finishes in two of the biggest events on the Challenge Tour schedule, in Saint-Omer and Madeira, this season to lie 38th in the Rankings added: “I still don’t feel great with my long game, but I was able to hit it in the right spots, and I got up and down well with the wedge, which is good because there are a lot of wedge approaches here.”

Jamie Elson © Getty Images“The finish was a bit frustrating, dropping a couple in the last few holes, but all in all I’m very happy.”

For Tiley, a good performance in Switzerland would be the perfect precursor to next week’s Open Championship at Muirfield, for which he earned a place in the field through Local Final Qualifying earlier this month. Indeed, Tiley is something of an Open qualifying specialist, having made it through three times from four attempts.

“I’m playing well and really looking forward to next week,” said the Kent man, who shot a first round 66 in The 139th Open Championship at St Andrews in 2010. “It was nice to qualify again and I’ll be heading up there on Monday, but first I’ve got to focus on doing as well as I can here.”

Guerrier was one of three first-round leaders, but endured a more difficult day after an opening 64, saying: “It was a very frustrating day on the greens. I putted very badly, which is very different from yesterday. I had two three-putts and I missed a couple of putts from inside two metres.

“I also had some bad luck today with good shots just missing, and the wind changing direction while my ball was in the air. But I’m in a good position and I’m excited to be in contention heading into the weekend.”

Former world number one tennis player Yevgeny Kafelnikov was in the field as he continues his foray into professional golf, but comfortably missed the cut with rounds of 84 and 83.

Round 2 scores:

131 J Elson  (Eng) 65 66,

133 S Kim (Kor) 67 66, V Riu  (Fra) 69 64, J Guerrier  (Fra) 64 69, S Tiley (Eng) 68 65,

134 J McLeary  (Sco) 70 64,

135 D Huizing (Ned) 69 66, A Gee  (Eng) 66 69, A Perrino  (Ita) 71 64, B Parker  (Eng) 64 71, P Edberg (Swe) 69 66, D Griffiths  (Eng) 66 69, J Carlsson (Swe) 69 66,

136 A Pavan (Ita) 65 71, D Geminiani (Ita) 72 64, S Garcia Rodriguez (Esp) 71 65, M Crespi  (Ita) 68 68, C Hanson (Eng) 68 68, T Nørret (Den) 67 69, F De Vries  (Ned) 68 68,

137 J Huldahl (Den) 68 69, R Steiner (Aut) 69 68, S Manley (Wal) 64 73, A Bernadet  (Fra) 66 71,

138 A Ahokas (Fin) 67 71, W Booth  (Sco) 69 69, N Ravano (Ita) 69 69, G Cambis  (Fra) 70 68, M Trappel  (Aut) 66 72, G Boyd  (Eng) 72 66, J Lima  (Por) 69 69, R Saxton (Ned) 68 70, J Glennemo (Swe) 70 68,

139 D Nouailhac (Fra) 68 71, J Lando Casanova  (Fra) 69 70, J Maurer  (Aut) 72 67, P Oriol (Esp) 70 69, E Espana (Fra) 71 68, J Frazer (Wal) 72 67, J Clément  (Sui) 71 68, M Rominger  (Sui) 66 73, B Ritthammer (Ger) 69 70, C Kim (USA) 71 68, B Paolini (USA) 70 69, Z Scotland  (Eng) 73 66, A Velasco (Esp) 69 70, S Whiffin (Eng) 73 66,

140 D Im (USA) 72 68, R Kakko  (Fin) 72 68, C Aguilar  (Esp) 67 73, R Dinwiddie  (Eng) 70 70, D Frittelli (RSA) 73 67, N Floren (Swe) 69 71, N Quintarelli (Ita) 67 73, A Johnston (Eng) 69 71, T Murray (Eng) 69 71,

141 P Relecom  (Bel) 70 71, J Garcia Pinto (Esp) 73 68, B An (Kor) 74 67, A Maestroni  (Ita) 71 70, T Remkes (Ned) 72 69, D Stewart (Sco) 71 70, J Doherty  (Sco) 69 72, N Elvira  (Esp) 71 70, J Pastor Lopez (Esp) 73 68, T Pulkkanen  (Fin) 71 70, L Goddard  (Eng) 74 67, L Bjerregaard  (Den) 69 72, D Palm (Swe) 73 68

CUT

142 A Otaegui  (Esp) 74 68, R Enoch  (Wal) 70 72, S O’Hara  (Sco) 72 70, B Hebert  (Fra) 68 74, E Johansen  (Nor) 71 71, J Gibb (Eng) 72 70, F Svanberg  (Sui) 71 71, D Vancsik (Arg) 70 72, S Walker (Eng) 72 70,

143 D Wuensche  (Ger) 68 75, C Brazillier  (Fra) 69 74, D Ulrich (Sui) 70 73, C Russo (Fra) 74 69, R Russell (Sco) 70 73, R Kellett (Sco) 68 75, F Bergamaschi (Ita) 69 74, C Ford (Eng) 72 71,

144 R De Sousa (Sui) 72 72, G Molteni (Ita) 67 77, P Gustafsson (Swe) 71 73, T Fournier  (Fra) 72 72, N D’Incau  (Sui) 70 74, A Rota (Ita) 73 71, G Snow  (Ken) 70 74, F Praegant (Aut) 71 73,

145 G Shaw (Nir) 70 75, H Bacher (Aut) 73 72, A Domingo (Esp) 75 70, M Laskey  (Wal) 71 74, A Bossert (Sui) 74 71, D Perrier (Fra) 74 71, J Howarth (Eng) 73 72, M Ford (Eng) 71 74, P Archer (Eng) 74 71,

146 J Jeong (Kor) 79 67, F Mruzek (Cze) 80 66, J Lerchedahl (Den) 71 75, F Laporta (Ita) 71 75, J Senior (Eng) 75 71, M Sell  (Eng) 70 76, S Grant  (Irl) 74 72, O Wilson (Eng) 72 74, O Henningsson  (Swe) 72 74, J Ruth  (Eng) 75 71, S Davis (Eng) 76 70, D Gaunt (Aus) 75 71, A Engell  (Nor) 73 73, J Fahrbring (Swe) 72 74, S Piaget  (Mon) 72 74, N Thommen (am) (Sui) 73 73,

147 J Mommo  (Fin) 74 73, L Weber (Fra) 72 75, B Hemstock (Eng) 73 74, C Blaesi  (Sui) 70 77, D Salisbury (Eng) 73 74, M Novy  (Cze) 75 72, J Nodér (Sui) 76 71, X Ruiz Fonhof  (Ned) 71 76,

148 A Hortal  (Esp) 78 70, J Johnson (Eng) 72 76, J Barnes (Eng) 77 71, F Colombo (Ita) 77 71, J Timmis (Eng) 74 74, N Bertasio (Ita) 75 73, S Hutsby  (Eng) 74 74,

149 C Del Moral (Esp) 76 73, T Haylock  (Eng) 76 73, I Korvenmaa (Fin) 77 72,

150 J Schmid (Sui) 79 71, Å Nilsson (Swe) 72 78,

151 S Surry (Eng) 75 76, N Meitinger  (Ger) 78 73, S Hansen (Nor) 76 75, R Wiederkehr (Sui) 74 77, M Kramer  (Ger) 74 77, B Etchart  (Esp) 77 74, K Cobb (USA) 73 78,

152 L Tintera  (Cze) 75 77,

153 A Marshall (Eng) 81 72, P Gal  (Cze) 79 74,

154 J Girrbach (am) (Sui) 78 76, M Harradine (am) (Sui) 81 73,

155 L Canter (Eng) 80 75,

157 M Nichols (Eng) 74 83,

164 A Rajmont (am) (Cze) 83 81,

167 Y Kafelnikov (Rus) 84 83,

** G Houston (Wal) 77 DQ,