EUROPEAN TOUR:FRENCHMAN GREGORY Bourdy, with only one top-10 finish in the past year, leads the Reale Seguros Spanish Open at the halfway stage in Seville.
A best-of-the-week 66, rounded off with four birdies in the last six holes, took the 30-year-old from Bordeaux to five under par after he had resumed down in 37th place.
In stark contrast, overnight leader Shaun Micheel managed only a 77, but that was still three better than Miguel Angel Jimenez.
The 48-year-old had never previously failed to break 80 in his national championship – and he made his debut back in 1988.
Irish players Damien McGrane, Shane Lowry and Michael Hoey, and Scots Colin Montgomerie and Paul Lawrie also missed the halfway cut – Lawrie’s exit completing an unhappy week after he missed a flight connection and lost his luggage.
Another Lawrie, Peter, was best of the Irish – a second round 73 leaving him on level par for the tournament, five shots off the lead.
Simon Thornton is two shots further adrift, after a second successive 73, with Gareth Maybin’s second round 75 leaving him on the four-over-par cut line.
Leader Bourdy is one in front of England’s Simon Dyson and Robert Rock, 19-year-old Italian Matteo Manassero and Jorge Campillo – now the leading home hope on the 100th anniversary of the event’s launch.
Despite the tough conditions – wind, dense rough and bumpy greens – the leader has not shot lower since last November.
“I’ve just been patient,” Bourdy said. “I’ve not made a score like that for a long time in these conditions. It’s good for the confidence.”
Dyson finished his 69 with a 12-footer for eagle with his new belly putter. “It appeared to bobble and I started walking, but it kept going and dropped,” the Irish Open champion said.
“I switched because I’ve just not been holing out well. It’s harder to get the pace, but I start it on the right line more consistently.”
Manassero and Rock shot 70 and 72 respectively as they continued their bids for third European Tour wins.
Rock, back this week from a five-week break, led after starting with a birdie, but mixed three bogeys with two more birdies after that.
WHILE Nick Watney charged into an early one-shot lead during last night’s second round of the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina, a frustrated Tiger Woods was almost certain to miss the cut.
The former world number one battled to a one-over-par 73 at Quail Hollow Club last night, failing to birdie any of the four par-five holes and finishing one stroke outside the projected cut line.
Up to last night, Woods had missed just seven cuts as a professional, most recently at last year’s PGA Championship in Atlanta.
“The entire week I didn’t play the par-fives well,” Woods said after parring his last nine holes to post an even-par total of 144, a distant 12 strokes behind fellow American Watney who fired an eight-under 64. “You just can’t do that, especially when all of them are reachable with irons.”
Asked to explain why he had struggled, Woods replied: “It all has to do with my set-up. If I get over the golf ball and I feel uncomfortable, I hit it great. It’s just that I get out there and I want to get comfortable, and I follow my old stuff, and I hit it awful.”
In contrast, Rory McIlroy was going in the opposite direction last night, and can look forward to this weekend in North Carolina. Despite a bogey on the 18th, the Irishman carded a second round 68 to move up the leaderboard.
IRELAND'SRebecca Codd slipped down the leaderboard after carding a second round 75 yesterday in the Ladies Scottish Open.
An opening two-under-par round of 70 had left Codd in fourth place yesterday morning, but she now lies 12th, four shots off the lead.
Scotland’s Carly Booth, England’s Florentyna Parker and Stacy Lee Bregman of South Africa hold a three-way share of the lead.
The trio are locked at three under par having played 36 holes in near-freezing conditions at Archerfield Links in East Lothian.
Parker’s 69 was the best round of the day and included an eagle at the par-five sixth hole, while Bregman and Booth shot rounds of 70 and 71 respectively.
Tara Davies of Wales had a 72 and sits alone in fourth place on two-under, with Italian Diana Luna and first-round leader Anne-Lise Caudal of France a shot further back on one under par.
England’s Laura Davies made a leap up the leader board into a five-way share of seventh place with a 70, as did Welsh woman Becky Morgan. South Lee-Anne Pace and English duo Melissa Reid and Elizabeth Bennett are also just three behind the leader on a total of 144, level par.
