IAN WOOSNAM shot a second successive 64 to lead the head-long charge for the Volvo German Open in Stuttgart yesterday on a course derided by Seve Ballesteros as being "too easy and dismissed by Eamonn Darcy as a "chip-and putt".
The Welshman's 14-under-par half-way total of 128 gave him a one-stroke lead over Sweden's Robert Karlsson, who became the third player to shoot 62 when he got home in 28.
A stroke further back are former British amateur champion lain Pyman and Spaniard Fernando Roca, who also returned 64, with naturalised Spaniard Carl Suneson and Yorkshireman Stephen Field sharing fifth place at 11-under.
Darcy heads the Irish challenge after scoring 68 for 133, with Des Smyth two shots behind. Paul McGinley, Francis Howley, Raymond Burns, and Ronan Rafferty, who were all on 136, also qualified, but Padraig Harrington and David Higgins were both victims of the record low cut, and Darren Clarke withdrew with a recurrence of tendinitis after only nine holes of his second round.
Five-under-par, which equalled the previous lowest in the 1992 BMW Open in Munich, was the cut-off mark, and both Ballesteros and Harrington were one shot outside. The two most recent Spanish Open champions were both unfortunate, the Irishman after pushing his approach to the last into a bunker. His recovery finished 10 feet above the hole, but his par-saver lipped out and he took 71 for 138.
Ballesteros drove into sand at the same hole in shooting 70 and then blamed European Tour officials for the way they had set up the course for the tournament.
"You should be able to shoot 62 if you play fantastic golf," he said, "but all these very low scores are giving a false impression. The reality is that the course is too easy. You will see a very different thing when we got to the Volvo Masters at Valderrama."
Darcy agreed. "I am not enjoying this course at all. It is just pitch and putt and I don't know where the Tour is going when we play places like this," he declared "The Irish Open at Druid's Glen was won with five-under-par. Here five-under-par is the cut."
Woosnam concurs with the criticism of the Nippenburg test: "The real par is 67 and this tournament has become a putting contest. We need to play on tougher courses. When we go to the US we see a huge difference."
But there will be no complaints from Woosnam if he takes the first or second prize this weekend and knocks Colin Montgomerie off the top of the money list.
His inward 29 yesterday, which means he has played that half of the course in 59 strokes, suggested his putting was good enough to withstand any challenge from his closes rivals.
Smyth, who had 69 for 135, birdied the last two holes to ensure survival, and Rafferty was only once in trouble after his opening 64. That was when he went into the water at the ninth for a double bogey. He ended with 72.
Burns and Howley also alighted on a six-under-par 136 after both had four birdies in blemish free rounds of 67.
Higgins birdied the last three holes of his outward half to raise hopes of a weekend place, but finished with three bogeys for 71 and 141.
