Hong Kong Open: Canadian Rick Gibson may have had the honour of grabbing the lead at the halfway stage of the UBS Hong Kong Open, but it was Colin Montgomerie who grabbed most of the attention in Fanling as the eight-time European Tour Order of Merit winner moved menacingly into contention.
After opening with an excellent 65, Gibson continued his solid progress with a second round 66 for a nine-under-par total of 131 and a one-shot lead over his fellow Asian Tour regular Edward Loar of the US, with Sweden's Martin Erlandsson third on seven-under-par 133.
However, it was the group of players who finished on five-under-par 135 which garnered most of the interest around the Hong Kong Golf Club, thanks to the presence in their midst of Montgomerie, who moved effortlessly up the leaderboard with a flawless 66.
It could have been even better for the 42-year-old Scot, who let a hatfull of chances slip away. But he consoled himself with a strong finish, getting up and down from the middle of the fairway to save par at the sixth and birdieing the seventh, before birdieing his final hole of the day - the ninth - following a sublime approach shot from the rough to five feet.
"It is always nice not to drop a shot, but four birdies was disappointing because of the way I hit the ball and how close I hit the ball," he said. "Yes, it is a reasonable score, but disappointing in many ways that it wasn't better.
"But at least it has given me an opportunity to score low tomorrow and get into contention on Saturday night, which is my goal in any tournament. We will see how we go tomorrow, but it is set up for a better day after that.
Best of the Irish is Damien McGrane, who shot a second-round 71 to be on 139. Peter Lawrie (69) and Gary Murphy (73) are two shots farther back, while Michael Hoey and David Higgins failed to survive the cut.
Erlandsson dropped his only shot of the day at the ninth, but three birdies elsewhere, including monster putts at the 11th and 17th, saw him more than pleased with his day's work in the co-sanctioned event between The European Tour and the Asian Tour.
"I was a little bit nervous going out because I was five under to start with and I wasn't striking the ball as well I would have wanted to yesterday, but my putting was very good," he said.
"But I have to say my shots were getting better and better today, so that felt comfortable and nice."
One shot behind Erlandsson was his fellow European Tour colleague Andrew Butterfield of England, who was more than happy with his second round 65 - which featured six birdies - and which moved him to six-under-par 134 and into a share of fourth with the first-round leader Kang Wook-Soon of Korea, who stood still with a level par 70.
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