England's Paul Waring discovered that neither a lack of thinking nor competitive golf was a barrier to contending for a second European Tour title at the ISPS Handa UK Championship.
Waring has not played since the last week of February due to a combination of the coronavirus shutdown and a back injury which prevented him making his debut in the US PGA Championship earlier this month.
However, the 35-year-old from Birkenhead showed few signs of rust as he added a second round of 67 – the joint lowest score of the day – to his opening 70 at The Belfry to lie two shots off the lead held by South Africa's Justin Walters.
“I’d definitely take that with these conditions,” Waring, who won the Nordea Masters in 2018, said. “We got through 13 holes and then on the par-three 14th got a massive gust downwind. From there it was quite tough coming in, we had a rain shower too so I’m pleased to finish the round off.
“The short game has been really tidy. When I have missed it I’ve made a really easy up and down and haven’t put myself under any pressure.
“I’m driving it quite nicely so everything is in play off the tee. I’m not chasing my tail, I’m plodding on and giving myself more chances than having to recover.
“I’ve found it’s best not to think. I try not to overthink anything. It’s a massive thing for me, overthinking. I’ve only come to see where my golf game is. I had no idea what shape it would be in. I feel like I’m free-wheeling it at the moment.
“It’s something I’ve been doing for the last few years, ever since I won in Sweden and had a good season last year. That’s one of the key things for me, not getting ahead of myself and letting whatever happens happen. I’ve built on that over the years and I’m just getting better at that.”
Walters, who is seeking a first European Tour title, added a 71 to his opening 64 to finish nine under par, a shot ahead of France's Benjamin Hebert, who is also yet to taste victory on Tour.
World number 30 Bernd Wiesberger double-bogeyed the 18th to lie three shots off the lead alongside New Zealand's Ryan Fox and the English pair of Matthew Jordan and Marcus Armitage.
Jonathan Caldwell made the weekend right on the cut mark after carding a two-over 74 that left him on one over for the tournament.
Paul Dunne missed the cut after a 77 pushed him back to seven over, while Brendan Lawlor, who is one of the world's top disabled golfers, added an 82 to his opening 84.
LEADERBOARD
British and Irish unless stated, par 72, (a) denotes amateurs
135 Justin Walters (Rsa) 64 71
136 Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 67 69
137 Paul Waring 70 67
138 Marcus Armitage 70 68, Matthew Jordan 69 69, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 71 67, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 67 71
139 Julian Suri ((USA)) 68 71, Scott Vincent (Zim) 67 72
140 Craig Howie 68 72, Richard Bland 70 70, Dean Burmester (Rsa) 70 70, Bryce Easton (Rsa) 72 68, Calum Hill 68 72, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 68 72
141 Ross Fisher 68 73, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 72 69, (a) Garrick Higgo (Rsa) 70 71, Wilco Nienaber (Rsa) 69 72, Tom Gandy (IOM) 73 68, Aaron Cockerill (Can) 72 69, Graeme Storm 72 69, Lee Westwood 70 71
142 Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 68 74, Jorge Campillo (Esp) 69 73, Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 71 71, Andy Sullivan 70 72, Marc Warren 69 73, Jeff Winther (Den) 69 73, Jake McLeod (Aus) 71 71, Darius Van Driel (Ned) 72 70, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 68 74, Rasmus Hojgaard (Den) 73 69, Ross McGowan 74 68, Min Woo Lee (Aus) 71 71
143 Ben Evans 71 72, Matt Wallace 70 73, Joel Sjoholm (Swe) 67 76 Thorbjorn Olesen (Den) 70 73, Rhys Enoch 68 75, David Horsey 71 72, Matthias Schwab (Aut) 71 72, Aaron Rai 71 72
144 Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 72 72, Damien Perrier (Fra) 73 71, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 75 69, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 75 69, Martin Simonsen (Den) 74 70, Laurie Canter 71 73, David Dixon 68 76, Dave Coupland 73 71, Eddie Pepperell 74 70, John Catlin ((USA)) 72 72
145 Lucas Bjerregaard (Den) 73 72, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 70 75, Richie Ramsay 75 70, Steven Tiley 74 71, Lee Slattery 70 75, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 74 71, James Morrison 75 70, Haotong Li (Chn) 74 71, Liam Johnston 72 73, Stephen Gallacher 69 76, Jack Senior 70 75, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 70 75, Jonathan Caldwell 71 74
Missed cut
146 JC Ritchie (Rsa) 71 75, Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez (Esp) 74 72, David Howell 70 76, Marcel Siem (Ger) 75 71, Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 75 71, Matthew Baldwin 72 74, Chris Paisley 75 71, Wil Besseling (Ned) 73 73, Dale Whitnell 76 70, Victor Perez (Fra) 75 71, Antoine Rozner (Fra) 74 72, Alejandro Canizares (Esp) 74 72, Ewan Ferguson 74 72, Gregory Havret (Fra) 72 74
147 Kalle Samooja (Fin) 74 73, Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 73 74, Philip Eriksson (Swe) 72 75, Danny Willett 72 75, Daan Huizing (Ned) 73 74, Romain Langasque (Fra) 73 74, Romain Wattel (Fra) 75 72, Jordan Smith 72 75, Gavin Green (Mal) 69 78
148 Steven Brown 75 73, Oscar Lengden (Swe) 71 77, Ashley Chesters 74 74, Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa) 76 72, Jordan Wrisdale 76 72, Ben Stow 73 75, Maverick Antcliff (Aus) 78 70, Robert Rock 75 73, Jbe Kruger (Rsa) 76 72, Daniel Young 70 78, Louis De Jager (Rsa) 72 76, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 76 72, Oliver Farr 74 74
149 Sihwan Kim (Kor) 74 75, Zach Murray (Aus) 71 78, Alejandro Larrazabal (Esp) 73 76, Benjamin Poke (Den) 72 77, Garrick Porteous 74 75, Julien Guerrier (Fra) 75 74, Matthew Southgate 73 76, Adrien Saddier (Fra) 72 77, Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 75 74
150 Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 72 78, Callum Shinkwin 76 74, (a) Curtis Knipes 74 76
151 Paul Dunne 74 77, Marcel Schneider (Ger) 76 75
152 Toby Tree 75 77, Mathieu Fenasse (Fra) 76 76, Daniel Gavins 76 76, Alexander Levy (Fra) 79 73
153 Richard McEvoy 80 73, Hurly Long (Ger) 77 76, Nicolai Hojgaard (Den) 78 75
154 David Law 73 81, Gareth Davies 73 81
155 Max Schmitt (Ger) 75 80
157 Janne Kaske (Fin) 78 79
159 Lorenzo Scalise (Ita) 80 79, Scott Hend (Aus) 75 84
166 Brendan Lawlor 84 82
