Golf:What a difference a day makes. Rory McIlroy initially played-up his up his chances on the Hong Kong Open greens but today those comments came back to haunt him as grainy greens and a cold putter left the Race to Dubai challenger to rue what might have been.
All is far from lost, however, for although McIlroy struggled with the blade, so too did Lee Westwood as the chief protagonists in the race to become Europe’s number one continue to jockey for position.
McIlroy holds sway, albeit marginally, at the halfway stage after carding a second round 68 to advance to six-under at the Fanling venue. Westwood could only manage a level par 70 to remain on four-under going into the weekend.
The front nine was a smooth passage for McIlroy as back-to-back birdies from the fifth and the rest pars ensured a front nine of 32. It should have been better though as he missed a two foot birdie attempt at the ninth.
Frustrations grew when he saw a six-foot birdie effort roll around the cup on 12 before a third birdie eventually came at the 13th but it was immediately given back with a bogey at the next.
The remainder of round became one of further frustration for the 20-year-old as genuine birdies were given up, particularly at the 16th and 17th.
“I played really well, the putts just stopped dropping on the back nine. I think it is to do with the time of the day as the grain affects the ball a lot. As the sun starts to go down the grass grows and affects it,” said McIlroy, who has no intention of holding back over the weekend.
“I can get myself right in it if I shoot a good front nine tomorrow (Saturday) - I can put pressure on the leaders with a fast start.”
Peter Lawrie continues to keep pace with McIlroy and matched his younger counterpart for the second consecutive day to also be six-under.
Those not familiar with the conditions in this part of the world have all struggled on the greens, not least Westwood.
The Race to Dubai leader was the model of consistency from tee to green but needs to find a way of converting birdies over the weekend if he is to remain competitive. For all today’s good play Westwood only managed one birdie at the 10th whcih was offset by a solitary bogey at the ninth as the rest of the card showed 16 pars.
Westwood was joined on four-under by friend and stablemate Darren Clarke after he shot 67, while Graeme McDowell was one better after a 68.
Michael Hoey’s 68 wasn’t enough haul him over to the right side of the cut mark as he finished one-over - three shots too many. Shane Lowry was way off the pace after a disappointing 78 left the Clara golfer towards the foot of the field on 10-over.
It’s tightly bunched at the top of the leaderboard with France’s Gregory Bourdy (67), China’s Liang Wen-Chong (65), South Africa’s Charl Schwartzel (66) and Robert-Jan Derksen (68) from The Netherlands commanding a share of the lead on nine-under.
Bourdy, last year’s Estoril Open winner, dropped his third shot of the day at the last to let slip the outright lead. Derksen had got to 11-under but finished with back-to-back bogeys, while Liang boosted his slender hopes of winning the Asian Tour Order of Merit with a bogey-free, equal best of the day 65.
Liang currently occupies the 60th and final qualifying spot for next week’s season-ending Dubai World Championship, while Derksen (78th) and Bourdy (87th) must finish at least second in Hong Kong to stand a chance of heading to the Middle East for the lucrative showpiece.
“It was a good day. I was consistent but made a double bogey on the eighth and bogey on the 18th which was a shame with three putts,” said Bourdy.
“But my game was good and I am confident for the weekend. There are plenty of positives to take into the last two rounds and if I keep playing like this I will be okay on Sunday.”
First-round leader Udorn Duangdecha tumbled down the leaderboard as the Thai followed his storming 62 with a four-over-par 74.
Collated second round scores & totals in the European Tour UBS Hong Kong Open, Hong Kong GC, Fanling, Hong Kong
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 70):
131Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 63 68, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 65 66, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 66 65, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 64 67
132Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 65 67, Chinnarat Phadungsil (Tha) 66 66, 133 David Dixon 64 69, Scott Strange (Aus) 68 65, Wen-Tang Lin (Tpe) 64 69, Yong-eun Yang (Kor) 66 67, Danny Chia (Mal) 67 66
134Francesco Molinari (Ita) 66 68, Wei Chih Lu (Tha) 65 69, Rhys Davies 65 69, Peter Lawrie 66 68, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 65 69, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 66 68, Rory McIlroy 66 68, Ian Poulter 68 66, Airil-Rizman Zahari (Mal) 68 66, Mark Foster 65 69
135 Graeme McDowell 67 68, David Howell 69 66, Mars Pucay (Phi) 68 67, Simon Dyson 68 67, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 68 67, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 64 71, Jason Knutzon (USA) 68 67, Graeme Storm 68 67, Anthony Kang (USA) 69 66, Kiradech Aphibamrat (Tha) 68 67, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 70 65, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 66 69
136Shiv Kapur (Ind) 68 68, Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn) 67 69, Scott Drummond 69 67, Darren Clarke 69 67, Udorn Duangdecha (Tha) 62 74, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 68 68, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 68 68, Tony Carolan (Aus) 65 71, Lee Westwood 66 70
137Rahil Gangjee (Ind) 67 70, Andrew Dodt (Aus) 69 68, Ben Curtis (USA) 65 72, Simon Khan 67 70, Juvic Pagunsan (Phi) 67 70, Marcus Both (Aus) 70 67, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 68 69, Shun yat jason Hak (Hkg) 70 67, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 67 70, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 69 68, Bradley Dredge 66 71
138Christian Cevaer (Fra) 71 67, Ter-Chang Wang (Tpe) 66 72, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 71 67, Darren Beck (Aus) 68 70, Anders Hansen (Den) 68 70, Colin Montgomerie 69 69, Simon Yates 70 68, Chih-bing Lam (Sin) 71 67, Chawalit Plaphol (Tha) 71 67, Iain Steel (Mal) 68 70, Kodai Ichihara (Jpn) 65 73, Markus Brier (Aut) 70 68, Jamie Donaldson 69 69, Pablo Martin (Spa) 69 69
The following players missed the cut
139Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 71 68, Sung Lee (Pkr) 73 66, Inn-choon Hwang (Kor) 72 67, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 70 69, Neven Basic (Aus) 71 68, Unho Park (Aus) 67 72, Simon Griffiths 70 69, Mark Brown (Nzl) 68 71, Taichiro Kiyota (Jpn) 68 71, Hendrik Buhrmann (Rsa) 70 69, Marc Warren 68 71, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 68 71, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 68 71, James Kamte (Rsa) 68 71, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 70 69
140Anton Haig (Rsa) 67 73, David Gleeson (Aus) 72 68, Robert Dinwiddie 67 73, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 70 70, Chris Rodgers 68 72, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 72 68, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 71 69, Keith Horne (Rsa) 68 72, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 66 74
141Bryan Saltus (USA) 71 70, Derek Fung (Hkg) 71 70, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 73 68, Kenneth Ferrie 67 74, Oliver Fisher 72 69, Scott Hend (Aus) 71 70, Stephen Dodd 70 71, Mark O'Meara (USA) 66 75, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 70 71, David Bransdon (Aus) 69 72, Michael Hoey 73 68, Gregory Havret (Fra) 68 73
142Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 71 71, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 71 71, Sang-moon Bae (Kor) 74 68, Oliver Wilson 70 72, Tano Goya (Arg) 70 72, Joong Kyung Mo (Kor) 71 71
143Gaurav Ghei (Ind) 69 74, Somkiat Srisa-nga (Tha) 73 70, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 73 70, Johan Edfors (Swe) 69 74, Daniel Nisbet (Aus) 73 70, Scott Barr (Aus) 71 72, Artemio-hiromasa Murakami (Phi) 70 73, Angelo Que (Phi) 73 70, Anirban Lahiri (Ind) 71 72
144Nicholas Redfern 72 72, C Muniyappa (Ind) 73 71, Oskar Henningsson (Swe) 73 71, Thomas Levet (Fra) 71 73
145Danny Lee (Nzl) 70 75, Digvijay Singh (Ind) 76 69
146Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 75 71, Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 70 76, Prom Meesawat (Tha) 75 71, Antonio Lascuna (Phi) 76 70
147Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 72 75, Guido Van Der Valk (Ned) 75 72, Gavin Flint (Aus) 73 74
148Shing chi Tang (Hkg) 74 74, Kane Webber (Aus) 76 72
149Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 75 74
150 Shane Lowry 72 78, Jovick Lee (Hkg) 74 76
151William Fung wai kuen (Hkg) 72 79
152Jbe Kruger (Rsa) 77 75
153Grant Gibson (Hkg) 77 76
156Steven Lam (Hkg) 78 78
158Man Lok Lee (Hkg) 75 83
160Woon Man Wong (Hkg) 80 80
WD:Mitchell Brown (Aus) 78, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 77
