With his low round, McLaren finished at 12-under par for stroke play and one shot ahead of two chasers, Eric McIntosh and Darren Howie, who were both at 11 under.
Speaking to Scottish Golf after his second round, McLaren said, “Crail is a course that really suits my eye, so it has been good fun to play here in such a big competition. I have been playing well this past month and won the East of Scotland which was nice, and I know that I am playing some really good golf at the moment.”
“I don’t really want to put too much pressure on myself in terms of expectations for the next few days. I am playing good golf but don’t want to get ahead of the game, it is just important I keep trying to replicate the form I have had over the past few weeks.”
All of the match-play ties will be contested over Crail’s Craighead Links.
Defending Champion Euan McIntosh was one of the biggest movers on day two, climbing 98 spots up the leaderboard to keep his hopes of defending the Scottish Men’s Amateur title alive.
“There was no real difference to yesterday in terms of my approach, I was just able to putt better which helped. I know that tomorrow will be a tough challenge, so it is just a case of seeing what happens over the next few days.”
Michael Smyth was also able to jump 54 spots on Wednesday after tying the new Balcomie course record set by Rudd yesterday. The Royal Troon member had just one bogey in his nine-under par round of 60.
As for Rudd, a second-round 78 dropped him considerably down the leaderboard and into a tie for 33rd. Liam Duncan, who had opened with 61, followed with 73 and was tied for 14th.
Quotes and information from Scottish Golf used in this report
