Golf:YE Yang ominously moved one shot behind fellow Korean Kim Do-hoon at the halfway stage of the Volvo China Open at Jinji Lake International Golf Club. Yang, who finished eighth at The Masters last week, embarked on a back-nine birdie blitz to close on his equally in-form but lesser known compatriot.
With Kim topping the second round leaderboard at 11-under-par after a three-under 69, Yang closed with four consecutive birdies which keyed a six-under-par 66 to earn a share of second alongside Asian number one Thongchai Jaidee and Welshman Jamie Donaldson.
Thongchai battled his usually reliable putter to card a two under 70, while Donaldson posted six birdies in a 68 to improve to 10-under-par overall, a shot clear of Spain’s Pablo Larrazabal (69) and Finland’s Mikko Illonen (67).
Yang was forced to scramble for par at the last to concede just one bogey on his second circuit after hitting his approach into a deep greenside pot bunker which are a feature of the links style back nine.
“I managed to score quite well despite the conditions yesterday and today the conditions were more friendly and I was able to be a little bit more aggressive,” said the 38-year-old, who opened with a first round 68.
“But after my first birdie at the first hole I dropped a shot at the second and I thought it would be an up and down roller-coaster round, but fortunately I played within my realm and played a bit better than yesterday and I am satisfied with the score.
“I think the crucial hole for me was the birdie at number nine as it opened the gate to the back nine performance.
“I also had an opportunity to make birdie on 10 but missed that, but overall with the birdie on nine by overall demeanour and body language towards the game and towards the back nine opened up quite positivity and knowing that I needed to be in the area of 10 or 11 under par, I knew I had to play more aggressively.”
While Yang saved par at his final hole of a bright but breezy second day, Kim will hope his only dropped shot of the day after misjudging the wind into the final green will not become a factor over the weekend.
The 21-year-old is looking to follow up a third place at the Luxehills Chengdu Open at the start of April and a maiden victory on the Korean Tour at the SBS Tomato Open just last week.
Donaldson, who finished sixth at the Open de Andalucia in Malaga at the end of March, raised hopes of a maiden European Tour title as last year’s SAS Masters runner-up continues to turn his game around after losing his card in 2006.
“I played well in Malaga and last year was great and I am ready to win. I have been playing some good golf and I have just got to keep doing the same stuff and hopefully it will happen,” said Donaldson, who posted three other top-10 finishes in 2009.
On six under, Shane Lowry heads the Irish challenge following a round of 68. Peter Lawrie is one further back while Graeme McDowell and Damien McGrane sit on four under.
Collated second round scores
(Irish & GB unless stated, Irish in bold, par 72):
133Do-hoon Kim (Pkr) 64 69
134Jamie Donaldson 66 68, Y.E. Yang (Kor) 68 66, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 64 70
135Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 68 67, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 66 69
136Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 66 70
137Seung-yul Noh (Kor) 69 68, Dae-hyun Kim (Kor) 70 67, Corey Pavin (USA) 67 70
138Soon-sang Hong (Kor) 67 71, Alexander Noren (Swe) 71 67, Shane Lowry70 68, Oliver Fisher 73 65, Graeme Storm 69 69
139Peter Hanson (Swe) 72 67, Marc Warren 71 68, Peter Lawrie67 72, Mark Foster 75 64, Johan Edfors (Swe) 68 71, Ross McGowan 71 68
140 Damien McGrane67 73, Graeme McDowell70 70, Peter Whiteford 70 70, Colin Montgomerie 72 68, Steven Bowditch (Aus) 72 68, Danny Willett 71 69, Josh Geary (Nzl) 73 67, Stephen Dodd 69 71, Sang-moon Bae (Kor) 71 69, Bradley Dredge 70 70
141Stephen Gallacher 70 71, Wen-Tang Lin (Tpe) 71 70, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 69 72, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 73 68, Pablo Martin (Spa) 71 70, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 68 73
142Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 71 71, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 71 71, Anthony Wall 72 70, Tetsuji Hiratsuka (Jpn) 75 67, David Dixon 70 72, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 70 72, Tano Goya (Arg) 70 72, Ted Oh (Kor) 73 69, Kang-Chun Wu (Chn) 72 70, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa) 72 70, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 71 71
143Christian Nilsson (Swe) 71 72, Ki-sang Lee (Kor) 75 68, David Gleeson (Aus) 73 70, Oliver Wilson 69 74, Phillip Price 73 70, Rhys Davies 73 70, Joon-eob Son (Pkr) 71 72, Mu Hu (Chn) 69 74, Matthew Millar (Aus) 72 71, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 71 72, Alastair Forsyth 69 74, Paul McGinley71 72, Qin Xu (Chn) 74 69
144Richard Lee (Nzl) 72 72, Gareth Maybin72 72, David Howell 73 71, David Horsey 76 68, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 74 70, Danny Lee (Nzl) 73 71, David Drysdale 75 69, Marcus Both (Aus) 74 70, Scott Barr (Aus) 75 69, Stephen Dartnell (Aus) 74 70, Gui Ming Liao (Chn) 70 74, Hao Yuan (Chn) 72 72, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 73 71, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 74 70
The following players failed to make the cut
145Aaron Townsend (Aus) 75 70, Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 73 72, Jin Zhang (Chn) 73 72, Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha) 73 72, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 73 72, Zhi-Jin Xiao (Tpe) 71 74, Robert Rock 75 70, Paul Lawrie 74 71, Richard Finch 71 74, Michael Long (Nzl) 70 75, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 74 71, Markus Brier (Aut) 74 71, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 74 71, Leigh Mckechnie (Aus) 73 72
146Sang-hyun Park (Kor) 72 74, Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 72 74, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 75 71, Marcel Siem (Ger) 76 70, Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn) 74 72, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 73 73, Brett Rumford (Aus) 73 73, Anthony Kang (USA) 72 74, Ewan Porter (Aus) 72 74, Rick Kulacz (Aus) 72 74, Bi-o Kim (Kor) 76 70, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 72 74, Sam Little 77 69, Seong Ho Lee (Kor) 74 72
147Scott Laycock (Aus) 71 76, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 75 72, Daniel Im (USA) 79 68, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 72 75, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 73 74, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 74 73, Ariel Canete (Arg) 76 71, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 71 76
148Richard Bland 77 71, Paul Waring 73 75, Ming-chuan Chen (Tpe) 74 74, Scott Strange (Aus) 76 72, Ashun Wu (Chn) 73 75, Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) 77 71, Jae Hoon Jung (Kor) 73 75, Chao Li (Chn) 73 75, Joon woo Choi (Kor) 73 75
149Gary Lockerbie 75 74, Hui Qiang Wang (Chn) 73 76, Zhi-Feng Qiu (Tpe) 75 74, Lei Shang (Tpe) 74 75, Hyun-woo Ryu (Kor) 76 73, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 75 74
150Scott Hend (Aus) 75 75, Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) 75 75, Se Xiao (Chn) 73 77, Ashley Hall (Aus) 77 73
151Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 73 78, Cui-Lin Gu (Chn) 76 75
152Ye Tian (Chn) 79 73, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 78 74, Xin-jun Zhang (Chn) 75 77, Wen-gen Zheng (Hkg) 78 74, Yu-xiang Liu (Chn) 76 76
153Chang-lei Zhang (Chn) 76 77, Andrew Bonhomme (Aus) 77 76
154Shu Tao Gu (Chn) 77 77, Xiong-hui Ye (Chn) 78 76, Zhi jun Ou (Chn) 78 76, Wei Huo (Chn) 78 76, Wei-Huang Wu (Chn) 79 75, Hai-bao Cheng (Chn) 79 75, Oskar Henningsson (Swe) 82 72, Adam Blyth (Aus) 76 78
155Jian Chen (Chn) 78 77, Andrew Dodt (Aus) 78 77
156Tsung-yu Tsai (Tpe) 76 80, Wen-yi Huang (Chn) 78 78
157Jason Norris (Aus) 74 83, Jin-biao Yang (Chn) 75 82
159Mitchell Brown (Aus) 85 74
160Zhi Xie (Chn) 75 85
161Jun Zhou (Chn) 82 79