Golf Dunhill Championship: Ireland's Peter Lawrie revelled in a change to dry weather and shrugged off an ankle injury to card an eight-under-par 64 and share second place with Germany's Marcus Siem at the halfway point of the Dunhill Championship in Johannesburg yesterday.
Playing in the morning, after the rains had suddenly ceased, the European Tour rookie of the year for 2003 showed his fighting qualities on 16 and 18, where his drives went left into the trees and he still managed to scramble out and make birdie on each.
"I hurt my left ankle, like an Achilles tendon injury. I have never suffered from it before and I just got a little bit of physio on it this morning but it's been very sore all day," Lawrie said.
"I felt it when I got out of bed and I certainly wasn't jumping out of bed at half five this morning, so it definitely wasn't that.
"I hope that it will go by the end of the day but it has been quite stiff all day."
While he may have been conscious of the injury, Lawrie did not believe it was an influence.
"I was thinking more about my ankle than my scores. I was just trying to hit it down the fairways and onto the greens and I holed a few putts."
Raphael Jacquelin made the most of the dry and sunny afternoon conditions to surge to the top of the leaderboard, carding a 65 to take him to 13 under par.
Spurred on by a burning desire to get into the world's top 50, the Frenchman was one of the few afternoon players to take advantage of the conditions, as the lower scores belonged to those who teed off in the morning.
He carded three birdies on the front nine and added four more on the back nine as he took a one-shot lead into the third round.
Jacquelin believes his form was sparked last week after a good winter holiday, when he was in contention for a while in the SAA Open.
"The good thing is to be in contention for the first week last week and again this week.
"That shows me I am in good form and playing like last year," he said. "If I hit the ball like I did today over the weekend, I will be in contention. I am just going to try the same, fairways and the middle of the green."
And while the European contingent dominated against the more knowledgeable South Africans, Jacquelin believes he needs to fly the flag for France.
"Yes, why not? I want to see if I can be a role model for the French players and to show the French players that we can compete with the best players in the world.
"We just have to try and to trust ourselves enough to go for it," he added.
"It is time I think."
The cut came at three under par, 141, and Ireland's Mark McNulty added a 68 to his first-round 72 to get through by a single stroke. Damian McGrane cut it even finer, his 71 leaving him precisely on the mark.
But Paul McGinley and Ciarán McGonagle will not be involved in the final shake-up, both shooting 75 and finishing well down the field.
They were in good company. The 2002 champion Justin Rose also missed out, as did his fellow Britons Paul Lawrie and Andrew Coltart.
But defending champion Mark Foster was luckier, making it right on the mark after a 69.Rsa unless stated, par 72
131 - R Jacquelin (Fra) 66 65
132 - P Lawrie (Irl) 68 64, M Siem (Ger) 65 67
133 - S Hansen (Den) 66 67, A McLean (Brit) 65 68
134 - T Moore 68 66
135 - M Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 67 68, Gregory Havret (Fra) 66 69, Anders Hansen (Den) 65 70
136 - Marc Cayeux (Zim) 68 68, Robert-Jan Derksen (Hol) 69 67, Craig Lile 72 64
137 - H Buhrmann 71 66, J Edfors (Swe) 67 70, S Drummond (Brit) 72 65, M Lafeber (Hol) 68 69, D Carter (Brit) 70 67, R Sterne 69 68, J Moseley (Aus) 71 66
138 - A Bossert (Swi) 71 67, S Little (Brit) 71 67, J Huldahl (Den) 70 68, B Dredge (Brit) 72 66, J Lomas (Brit) 72 66, L Westwood (Brit) 68 70, K Ferrie (Brit) 69 69, M Olander (Swe) 69 69, J Carriles (Spa) 70 68
139 - K Eriksson (Swe) 73 66, A Butterfield (Brit) 68 71, R Coles (Brit) 72 67, T Immelman 70 69, J Kingston 72 67, B Vaughan (USA) 72 67, J Manuel Lara (Spa) 69 70, J Hepworth (Brit) 70 69, D Lynn (Brit) 68 71, S Scahill (Nzl) 68 71, W Bennett (Brit) 73 66, J Elson (Brit) 72 67, D Park (Brit) 67 72, S Wakefield (Brit) 73 66
140 - S Waltman 72 68, M Maritz 70 70, A McLardy 73 67, H Otto 69 71, B Davis (Brit) 69 71, M McNulty (Irl) 72 68, D Terblanche 72 68, N Dougherty (Brit) 70 70, D van Staden 70 70, M Brier (Aut) 70 70, S Manley (Brit) 71 69, W Ormsby (Aus) 71 69, J Backstrom (Swe) 70 70, C Davison 71 69, M Blackey (Brit) 68 72, K Horne 73 67
141 - S Fernandez (Arg) 73 68, F Delamontagne (Fra) 69 72, P Hanson (Swe) 71 70, R Chapman (Brit) 71 70, D Fichardt 70 71, M Foster (Brit) 72 69, J-F Remesy (Fra) 72 69, B Mason (Brit) 71 70, S Dunlap (USA) 71 70, D McGrane (Irl) 71 70, B Liddle 71 70, S van Vuuren 68 73, R Russell (Brit) 70 71
MISSED THE CUT
142 - M Fraser (Aus) 73 69, S Gallacher (Brit) 71 71, J Spence (Brit) 72 70, C Swart 76 66, N Lawrence 75 67, P Golding (Brit) 70 72, D McGuigan (Brit) 72 70, D Gaunt (Aus) 73 69, R McEvoy (Brit) 71 71, P Lawrie (Brit) 73 69, R Wessels 71 71, A Coltart (Brit) 71 71, J Clement (Swi) 73 69, M Jonzon (Swe) 73 69
143 - A Kruger 72 71, T Auret 74 69, S Farrell (Zim) 73 70, J Haeggman (Swe) 72 71, M Jimenez (Spa) 73 70, S Webster (Brit) 75 68, D Botes 72 71, R Reid 71 72, M Erlandsson (Swe) 75 68, M Lemesurier (Brit) 73 70, L Oosthuizen 71 72, M Murless 68 75, S Jeppesen (Swe) 71 72, M Lamb (Zim) 69 74
144 - M Mouland (Brit) 70 74, B Rumford (Aus) 70 74, S Dodd (Brit) 72 72, S Hurd (Brit) 76 68, B Kennedy (Aus) 75 69, L Slattery (Brit) 73 71, J Rose (Brit) 75 69, P McGinley (Irl) 69 75, B Hlophe 70 74, B Lincoln 73 71, M Gortana 75 69, A Roestoff 77 67
145 - E Canonica (ITA) 70 75, I Giner (Spa) 73 72, P Baker (Brit) 73 72, U van den Berg 72 73
146 - D Gammon 74 72, T Dier (Ger) 74 72, P Eales (Brit) 72 74, S Basson 72 74, A Forsyth (Brit) 68 78, T Johnstone (Zim) 73 73, C Schwartzel 70 76, R Karlsson (Swe) 72 74, N Henning 75 71, S Struver (Ger) 75 71, C Williams (Brit) 74 72, M Kirk 74 72
147 - G Muller 79 68, A Cruse 73 74, D Frost 73 74, A Marshall (Brit) 78 69, B Banks (Brit) 76 71, D Pappas 75 72, N Colsaerts (Bel) 73 74, J Hugo 73 74, M Wiegele (Aut) 72 75
148 - V Groenewald 74 74, M Bothma 76 72, W Westner 74 74, R Rock (Brit) 73 75, N van Rensburg 74 74, W Druian 75 73, I Pyman (Brit) 75 73, J Bele 73 75, R Muntz (Hol) 72 76, B Vaughan 76 72, O Sandys 72 76
149 - T Sefatsa 72 77, C Rodiles (Spa) 71 78
152 - C McMonagle (Irl) 77 75
154 - J Hobday 79 75, T Simon 77 77 155 - E Marugi 77 78 156 - L Ndwandwe 80 76, I Hutchings 76 80 Withdrawn: Lewis Atkinson (Brit)
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