On his home course, McLaughlin shot a 36-hole qualifying total of 141 after rounds of 68 and 71 – both under-par rounds as the standard scratch scores in the conditions were 71 and 72 respectively.
Gavin O’Neill, who, on his debut, made the knock-out stages of the British Amateur Championship in England earlier this week, carded rounds of 73 and 71 to place second three strokes behind McLaughlin.
Gary Denton placed third and holder Paul Le Chevalier fourth.
La Moye’s challenge is being led by former Formula One racing driver Nigel Mansell.
It was a good day for the juniors too as Seb Browne, Gyles Robin and Keiron Goodricks all qualified for today’s matchplay stages.
Squeezed in Eight matches will be played on Saturday morning with the quarter-finals being contested in the afternoon.
The semi-finals are on Sunday morning followed by the final starting at 1.15 pm.
Two of the top three seeds are in opposition on Saturday morning – Le Chevalier against La Moye’s Richard Ramskill.
The La Moye player squeezed in late yesterday afternoon after he returned the joint lowest afternoon score of 71 following a disastrous opening 18-hole effort of 83.
Island player Andy Clarke was the biggest name to fall after rounds of 88 and 81 – 15 shots off the cut.
Last 16 pairs: Christie McLaughlin v Richard Harrop; Gavin O’Neill v Seb Brown; Gary Denton v Gyles Robin; Paul Le Chevalier v Richard Ramskill; Nigel Mansell v Bob Wickings; Keiron Goodricke v Stewart Crossan; Matthew Parkman v Robbie Messervy; James Birch v Geoff Ramskill.
