TIANJIN, April 20 - England's Gary Boyd and Jean-Baptiste Gonnet from France shot a pair of five-under-par 67s on Friday to share the lead after two rounds of the Volvo China Open at Binhai Lake Golf Club in Tianjin.
They go into the weekend at 11 under par, a shot ahead of South African Branden Grace and two in front of defending champion Nicolas Colsaerts, from Belgium, who both also recorded 67s.
The U.S $3 million tournament, which is co-sanctioned by OneAsia and the European tour, is being played for the first time at the links-style Binhai Lakes course, which at 7,667 yards is one of the longest on either circuit. A cold snap and gusting winds made playing conditions even tougher, and the cut was made at two-under.
Boyd, whose only professional win was the European Challenge Tour's Tusker Kenyan Open in 2009, offset six birdies with a lone bogey.
“It was good today because the conditions were tough," he said afterwards. "It was cold and windy out there so it makes the score all the more satisfying."
He credited a return to his old coach for getting his head straight after fiddling too much with his game.
"I was a bit lost in too many thoughts and trying too many different things for a while and that is not something that you want to be doing in tournament golf," he said.
“There wasn’t a lot wrong there but this is such a mental game that if the confidence slips a little bit it can just start to multiply the problems pretty quickly and all of a sudden you are down on yourself."
Gonnet also credits a rethink about why he plays with a much improved game recently.
“ I know this is a job but, for me, I have to enjoy it and remember why I started playing this game," he said.
"I have to go back to the five year old kid and try to play for fun. That will be the main aim for the weekend -- to go out there and try to enjoy it because there is no point in playing the game if you are not having fun.”
South African rookie Grace, a two-time European tour winner already this season, continued his excellent form with a blemish-free round that included an eagle on the par four seventh.
"I thought about it and realised that I had been driving the ball really good today so I went for it and hit it straight at it, got a nice bounce forward to five feet and rolled the putt in."
Grace, who earned his European Tour card at Q school last year, has made an immediate impact having won the Joburg Open and Volvo Golf Champions tournament over successive weekends in South Africa in January, victories that propelled him into the world's top 100.
Indonesian Rory Hie, who opted to play here instead of the Indonesian Masters, played at the same time in his native country at Royale Jakarta Golf Club, missed the cut with a second round of 74 to add to his first round 72 for a total of 146. As he finished second behind Lee Westwood at the Indonesian Masters last year, he probably may have second thoughts about his choice to play the China Open this year instead.
Disaster of the day went to Englishman Paul Casey who recorded a 10 on the par-five 12th hole, as well as two double bogey sevens on the second and 18th for a 79.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment