Richard Green is just two shots off the pace at the halfway mark of the Irish Open at Adare Manor. Green shott a disappointing two-over-par 74, but still remains in the hunt after his blistering opening round of 66. There are some big names around him on the leaderboard, but French leader Michael Lorenzo-Vera is not one of them. The 23-year-old from Biarritz is in his rookie season after winning last year&aposs Challenge Tour – and he admits the 7,453-yard course is the toughest he has seen in his life. After his first sight of it he admitted he thought: “God – how am I going to do that?” But so far he has done it very well, adding a 70 to his opening 68 for a halfway total of 138. Peter O&aposMalley also remains in contention at one-under par to be the only other Australian besides Green under par at the difficult course. Second Round of the Irish Open (Par 72): -6: Michael Lorenzo-Vera 68 70 -5: Marcel Siem 68 71 -4: Richard Green (Australia) 66 74, Pablo Larrazabal 70 70 -3: Peter Baker 72 69, Darren Clarke 72 69, Bradley Dredge 68 73, Johan Edfors 68 73, Robert Karlsson 71 70, Alvaro Velasco 69 72 -2: John Bickerton 72 70, Ross Fisher 74 68, Lee James 69 73, Maarten Lafeber 71 71, Paul McGinley 73 69, Rory McIlroy 70 72, Steven O&aposHara 74 68, Jarmo Sandelin 76 66, Jeev Milkha Singh 66 76, Anthony Wall 72 70 Also: -1: Peter O&aposMalley (Australia) 70 73 +1: Scott Strange (Australia) 71 74 +2: Matthew Millar (Australia) 73 73 +6: Mark Brown (New Zealand) 74 76, Marcus Fraser (Australia) 70 80 +12: Peter Fowler (Australia) 81 75 +13: Gareth Paddison (New Zealand) 83 74