Unheralded Frenchman Alexander Levy thrust himself into the spotlight with a 10-under-par 62 — the lowest score of his career — in the second round of the Volvo China Open. Play was suspended with a number of players still out on the course.
Only Northern Ireland’s Michael Hoey, who followed up his opening 69 with a level par, 72, looks like surviving the cut from an Irish perspective with Damien McGrane (73, 73), Gareth Maybin (77, 71) and Shane Lowry (72, 77) outside the likely cut mark of 144.
Levy,the world number 282, in his second season on the European Tour, raced into a four-shot lead after posting the course record at the Genzon Golf Club in Shenzhen with some blistering scoring.
Levy, who has had only two top-10 finishes in 34 previous events, carded eight birdies and an eagle in a blemish-free round which catapulted him into contention.
“It is a great round for me. I played unbelievably — it’s the first time I have played like that,” the 23-year-old admitted.
“I played really well and made a lot of putts to make the lowest score of my career.
“I didn’t realise how good the score was to be honest because I was focused on playing shot by shot.
“I played the right strategy and I just have to try to do that over the next couple of days.
“This is my first time in China and I feel great to be playing so well in what is a really big event for me.”
Levy began the day with a par at the par-four 18th to complete an opening round of 68 which was curtailed by bad light on Thursday.
But he was quickly into his stride for round two and a 25-foot eagle putt at the ninth capped an outward half of 30 which included four birdies.
He picked up further shots at the 10th, 12th, 14th and 17th to post 14 under for the tournament.
World number 303 Adrian Otaegui is one stroke behind after a 66, fellow Spaniard Alvaro Quiros third on nine under after a 68 and Levy’s friend and compatriot Raphael Jacquelin one back following a 67.
England’s Ian Poulter looked to be mounting a challenge to the leader as he reached the 12th at six under for the tournament but then had a mini-meltdown which means he was almost not around for the weekend.
A double bogey at the 205-yard par three was bad but worse was to follow at the next with a triple-bogey eight after an incorrect drop cost him two shots.
That left the Ryder Cup winner nearer the cut mark than the top of the leaderboard and another dropped shot at the 16th edged him closer to the exit door, only for a birdie at the par-five next to secure his place as he closed with a 74 to sit one under.
Details
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
130 Alexander Levy (Fra) 68 62
134 Adrian Otaegui (Spa) 68 66
135 Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 67 68
136 Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 69 67
137 Richie Ramsay 69 68, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 69 68
138 Tommy Fleetwood 70 68, Simon Dyson 67 71
139 Tyrrell Hatton 68 71, Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 70 69, Andrew Sullivan 71 68, Christopher Doak 71 68, Scott Jamieson 71 68
140 Marco Crespi (Ita) 71 69, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 70 70, Marcel Siem (Ger) 71 69, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 70 70, Julien Quesne (Fra) 69 71, Il- hwan Park (Kor) 68 72
141 Hennie Otto (Rsa) 70 71, Anders Hansen (Den) 73 68, Jorge Campillo (Spa) 71 70, Tom Lewis 72 69, Morten Orum Madsen (Den) 73 68, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 71 70, Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 70 71, Prom Meesawat (Tha) 72 69, David Drysdale 70 71, Jbe Kruger (Rsa) 74 67, Richard Green (Aus) 70 71, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 71 70, Michael Hoey 69 72, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 71 70
142 Hao-tong null Li (Chn) 73 69, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 72 70, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 71 71, Scott Strange (Aus) 71 71, Eddie Pepperell 70 72, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 73 69
143 David Horsey 68 75, Ashun Wu (Chn) 69 74, Ji-Man Kang (Kor) 71 72, Seve Benson 74 69, Oliver Fisher 73 70, Brett Rumford (Aus) 68 75, Ian Poulter 69 74, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 71 72, Kang-Chun Wu (Chn) 73 70, Nacho Elvira (Spa) 69 74, Gregory Havret (Fra) 70 73
144 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 72 72, Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 73 71, Ricardo Santos (Por) 71 73, Danny Willett 73 71, Anthony Wall 72 72, Zheng Ou-yang (Chn) 72 72, Eduardo De La Riva (Spa) 73 71, Matthew Griffin (Aus) 71 73, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 71 73, Richard Bland 69 75, Jason Dufner (USA) 73 71, Stuart Manley 70 74, Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) 73 71, Mark Brown (Nzl) 75 69, Simon Khan 69 75, Wen-Chong Liang (Chn) 70 74, Lee Slattery 72 72, Romain Wattel (Fra) 70 74
145 David McKenzie (Aus) 74 71, Ross Fisher 74 71, Dan Woltman (USA) 75 70, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 70 75, Matthew Nixon 75 70, Nick Cullen (Aus) 74 71
146 Craig Lee 70 76, Tian Yuan (Chn) 70 76, Peter Uihlein (USA) 69 77, Chris Wood 73 73, Peter Whiteford 73 73, Kristoffer Broberg (Swe) 74 72, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 69 77, Dae-Sub Kim (Kor) 70 76, Graeme Storm 71 75
147 Sihwan Kim (Nor) 77 70, Damien McGrane 73 74, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 79 68, Tian lang Guan (Chn) 71 76, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 73 74, Matthew Baldwin 76 71, Masanori Kobayashi (Jpn) 72 75, Bio Kim (Kor) 74 73, Victor Riu (Fra) 72 75
148 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 76 72, Paul Waring 72 76, Gareth Maybin 77 71, Peter Lawrie 78 70, Johan Edfors (Swe) 74 74, Joachim B Hansen (Den) 73 75, Xinyang Li (Chn) 75 73, Zihan She (Chn) 74 74
149 Jamie McLeary 78 71, Shane Lowry 72 77, Cheng Jin (Chn) 75 74, Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn) 77 72, James Stewart 77 72, Ding-gen Chen (Chn) 72 77
150 Garth Mulroy (Rsa) 74 76, Chung-ho Mou (Chn) 75 75, Daan Huizing (Ned) 80 70, Jin Jeong (Kor) 73 77, Ming Jie Huang (Chn) 75 75, Ze cheng Dou (Chn) 77 73, Justin Walters (Rsa) 76 74, Dong Su (Chn) 76 74, Mark Foster 78 72
151 Aaron Townsend (Aus) 74 77, Roope Kakko (Fin) 80 71, Zhi Xie (Chn) 77 74, Jin Zhang (Chn) 76 75, Soren Hansen (Den) 72 79, Yan-wei Liu (Chn) 76 75, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 77 74, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 76 75, Zhi-peng Fan (Chn) 75 76
152 David Howell 75 77, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 77 75, Do-hoon Kim (Kor) 76 76, Robert Rock 78 74, Ze-yu He (Chn) 79 73, Stephen Dodd 76 76, Marc Warren 74 78, Wen-yi Huang (Chn) 76 76
153 Daxing Jin (Chn) 74 79, Shao-cai He (Chn) 80 73, Guo-wu Zhou (Chn) 80 73
154 Yi Cao (Chn) 76 78, John Parry 78 76, Xu Wang (Chn) 76 78, Rhein Gibson (Aus) 79 75, Johan Carlsson (Swe) 77 77, Ming-hao Wang (Chn) 78 76, Jun seok Lee (Kor) 76 78, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 77 77
155 Sung-hoon Kang (Kor) 76 79
156 Jason Norris (Aus) 78 78
157 Guang-ming Yang (Chn) 79 78, Xin-jun Zhang (Chn) 77 80, Mu Hu (Chn) 76 81
158 Gareth Paddison (Nzl) 79 79, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 80 78
161 Thomas Levet (Fra) 80 81
162 Chuan-bing Feng (Chn) 81 81
163 Zi-hao Chen (Afg) 78 85
164 Daniel Popovic (Aus) 82 82
