English youngster Nick Dougherty made headway on the early leaderboard on the second day of the Qatar Masters in Doha while Ireland’s Peter Lawrie hit a hole-in-one.

Dougherty moved to seven under - one behind Swede Henrik Stenson - with four birdies and no dropped shots after 14 holes.

Playing with Dougherty, Stenson was in no mood to surrender the advantage his big-hitting game gave him yesterday.

His three birdies by 14 were offset by just one bogey, where he took four on the par-three 17th - leaving him at two under for his round.

Darren Fichardt, of South Africa, was level with Dougherty after 11 - his two birdies moving him on from five under overnight.

Fichardt's countryman Charl Schwartzel and the other leader after round one, Argentinian Ricardo Gonzalez, were at six under.

Ernie Els made a slow start to his first round, shooting two over par, but looked a little more like his old self today.

Starting on the back nine, the South African world number five dropped a shot at the 15th but birdied four of his next seven holes to move to four under with four holes left.

Els headed a group which also included Dane Thomas Bjorn, France's Jean Van de Velde and 2004 Joakim Haeggman of Sweden.

There were two hole in ones, too - one from Ireland's Peter Lawrie and the other from Thongchai Jaidee, of Thailand.

Both aced the par-three third but missed out on the prize of a car, which is on offer for the first player to sink a similar shot at the 17th.

Lawrie is one under for his round through 15 and the same total for the competition while Darren Clarke carded a two-over 72 following his level par round yesterday.

Dubliner Paul McGinley went around in three-under 69 yesterday and is level par through two holes today while Damien McGrane is two over through four and two over in total.