Asian Open:For the second time in seven days Raphaël Jacquelin of France finds himself looking down on the rest of the field at the halfway stage after a second round 69 in the BMW Asian Open stretched his lead to three strokes at the Tomson Shanghai Pudong Golf Club.
Jacquelin is clearly enjoying his visit to Shanghai as he carried on the form which saw him finish second in Portugal and then joint sixth last weekend at Shanghai Silport as he picked up five birdies in his last 12 holes to pull clear of the field.
At nine under par, the Frenchman was three ahead of Korean Lee Sung, who shot a 70 for a six-under-par total of 138, with five players tied at five under par including the 2004 champion Miguel Angel Jiménez and eight-time European Tour Order of Merit winner Colin Montgomerie.
South Africa's World number five, Ernie Els, carded a second straight 71 to lie seven back in his attempt to wrest the title he won by a record 13 strokes two years ago.
Damien McGrane and Graeme McDowell carry the Irish hopes, eight shots back on 143.
McGrane mixed five birdies with a double bogey at the sixth and bogeys at the third, 10th, 16th and 18th in a one-over-par 73 while McDowell added a two-under-par 70 that included birdies at the second, ninth and 13th and only one dropped shot at the 16th.
Peter Lawrie and Gary Murphy made the cut on the limit of 146. Lawrie fired a one-under-par 71 while Muphy shot level par 72.
But Jacquelin continues to blaze a trail and will be the man to catch over the final 36 holes.
"We were lucky this afternoon and the wind died on the back nine," admitted Jacquelin, who will be hoping for a French double this weekend with his football team Lyon poised to claim the championship title back at home.
"You need some luck sometimes and we were lucky with this side of the draw."
Looking to the challenges ahead, Jacquelin said: "I am really confident with how I am hitting the ball. I have improved my putting during the last few weeks and I am just trying to make the strokes and the swing I do in a practice round. And the birdies are coming. If the weather is good we will have to be low to win this tournament and the putter will have to be hot."
Montgomerie kept his challenge very much alive with an eagle three on the 15th, converting a putt from 15 feet after a towering three wood approach from 265 yards. That took him two under par for his round after two earlier birdies were offset by two bogeys, and his round of 70 placed him in the group on five under par alongside Jiménez, Sweden's Joakim Bäckström (69), Denmark's Søren Kjeldsen (72) and last week's joint runner-up Scott Hend of Australia (70).
"The eagle on the 15th helped there," said the Scotsman. "And I have moved up from sixth to third. Now I need a low one tomorrow. I am playing okay."
Meanwhile, Simon Dyson revealed spending the past two days in the company of Els has been worth all the golf lessons in the world.
A second consecutive 70 saw the man from York finish the day well placed in a tie for eighth at four-under-par going into the third round.
However, he is two shots better off than his illustrious playing partner, who shot another 71 to just about stay in touch at the halfway mark.
Dyson would be forgiven for feeling slightly smug that he had outplayed one of the game's leading players over the opening 36 holes of the 7,326-yard, par-72 course in Shanghai, but instead paid tribute to the 37-year-old's lasting influence.
He said: "It doesn't get much better than playing with Ernie Els and it certainly helped me.
"He's a pleasure to play with. He makes it look so easy. My game would improve if I played with him week-in, week-out. You would learn so much.
"I played with him about three years ago in Melbourne and I learnt more in one day than I had done in four years."(Irish in bold, British unless stated, Par 72)
(x) denotes amateurs
135 - Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 66 69
138 - Sung-man Lee (Kor) 68 70
139 - Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 67 72, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 70 69, Joakim Backstrom (Swe) 70 69, Scott Hend (Aus) 69 70, Colin Montgomerie 69 70
140 - Simon Dyson 70 70, Peter Hanson (Swe) 69 71, Markus Brier (Aut) 71 69
141 - Soren Hansen (Den) 71 70, Gavin Flint (Aus) 68 73, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 72 69, Marcel Siem (Ger) 72 69, Christian Cevear (Fra) 71 70, Scott Barr (Aus) 71 70, Kyron Sullivan 75 66
142 - Ernie Els (Rsa) 71 71, Keith Horne (Rsa) 73 69, David Griffiths 73 69, Simon Wakefield 72 70, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 72 70
143 - Tony Carolan (Aus) 69 74, Paul Casey 72 71, Matthew Millar (Aus) 73 70, Damien McGrane (Irl) 70 73, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 73 70, Mark Pilkington 71 72, Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 73 70, Simon Yates 74 69, Gregory Havret (Fra) 68 75, Garry Houston 71 72, Adam Le Vesconte (Aus) 72 71
144 - Richard Sterne (Rsa) 70 74, Adam Blyth (Aus) 71 73, Brett Rumford (Aus) 75 69, Christian Nilsson (Swe) 71 73, Sven Struver (Ger) 72 72, Juvic Pagunsan (Phi) 73 71, Kane Webber (Aus) 71 73, Keng-chi Lin (Tpe) 73 71, Chris Rodgers 73 71, David Bransdon (Aus) 76 68
145 - Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha) 72 73, Jason Knutzon (USA) 75 70, Wen-hong Lin (Chn) 69 76, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 72 73, Stephen Gallacher 72 73, Gaurav Ghei (Ind) 75 70, Marcus Both (Aus) 71 74, Edward Loar (USA) 70 75, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 73 72, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 72 73, Andres Romero (Arg) 75 70, Jean-Francois Luquin (Fra) 71 74, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 73 72, Reftief Goosen (Rsa) 71 74, James Kingston (Rsa) 74 71
146 - Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned) 74 72, Wen-tang Lin (Chn) 73 73, Lian-wei Zhang (Chn) 73 73, Peter Lawrie (Irl) 75 71, Simon Hurd 74 72, Shaun P Webster 72 74, Yasin Ali 74 72, Frankie Minoza (Phi) 75 71, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 72 74, Jun-won Park (Kor) 69 77, Edward Michaels (USA) 74 72, Gary Murphy (Irl) 74 72.
