Sport

Lawrie is sitting pretty

European and US tours: Ireland's Peter Lawrie lies in second place of the finishers as lightning forced play to be suspended…

Sat Apr 22 2006 - 01:00

European and US tours: Ireland's Peter Lawrie lies in second place of the finishers as lightning forced play to be suspended in the second round of the BMW Asian Open in Shanghai yesterday.

The Dubliner carded a level-par 72 to go three under for the tournament in conditions that proved difficult. A delighted Lawrie said: "It was very cold this morning and then the wind got up and it was very hard to get close to some of the flags, even though the greens were superb.

"I played nicely and 72, I have to be happy with that. I played well and hit a lot of shots into about 15 feet, but they are hard greens to read and unfortunately, I got a bit brain dead on the second hole.

"I hit my first shot into the hazard but I wasn't in the water, chopped it out, then hit my next shot onto the fairway but then hit my next shot into another hazard.

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"So it was a bit silly and I did well to make a double bogey in the end."

Scotland's Paul Lawrie is holding down second place on the leaderboard as the former British Open champion trails overnight leader Henrik Stenson by one shot after the Swede recovered from a poor start to put himself back into title contention.

Stenson is currently five under par for the tournament with one hole left to play. Lawrie posted a second straight two-under-par 70 playing in blustery conditions.

He collected birdies on the seventh, ninth, 13th and 18th holes but bogeyed the fifth and 14th holes to return one of the best rounds around the par-72 Tomson Golf Club.

Stenson, who shot an opening 67, held a slender one-shot lead going into the second round but dropped a shot on the second hole.

The world number 15 struggled to hold his own as he dropped further shots on the eighth and 10th but pulled his game together to birdie the fifth, eighth and 13th. He then parred the next four holes and was on a birdie putt on the 18th before play was halted at 4.45pm local time.

Scotland's Colin Montgomerie also struggled in the conditions. Montgomerie was two shots off the lead after an opening 69 but managed just two birdies and four bogeys to stand one under with one to play.