By David Ferguson
Scoring was tough on the second day of the Open de France. All those who mounted a challenge dropped late strokes to fall back again.
Martin Kaymer must have licked his lips when he woke on Friday morning in Paris for the second day of the Open de France. The overnight leader was three strokes ahead of the field, and the conditions looked very much like working in his favour.
Thursday had dawned hot and dry, with little or no breeze. The early starters had taken advantage, and most of the top of the leaderboard was decorated with the names of the players who had been out first.
But Friday produced a sharp contrast – cooler with plenty of cloud in the sky, and most importantly, a gusty breeze. These are conditions in which it will be extremely difficult to shoot low on the testing Golf National course, and so indeed it proved.
Best-placed of the second day's early starters was Swede Peter Hanson. He had fought his way to second place with a first round of six-under, and continued the good work into his second round with a birdie on the opener.
Two more followed on 4 and 5, and on the birdieable 9th he was again in the red. That took him to ten-under and sole possession of the lead. But the 10th proved his undoing, as it has for so many others.
It is a great little par-4. At around 350 metres it should have the professionals licking their lips. But rough ahead of an elevated green means there is no chance of turning it into a long par-3. Instead, the players have to lay up with a utility club or an iron, and right at the point where their tee shots will drop the fairway narrows and slopes to the left. Go too far right in an attempt to keep out of trouble and you will find yourself in thick rough – anything edging left will be carried by the fairway into the waiting pond.
So it proved for Hanson, who found water and a double-bogey. His lead had been short-lived. He was unable to win back the dropped strokes over the rest of the back nine, and in fact he dropped another on the 8th to finish a seven-under, two strokes off Kaymer's lead but still in 4th place.
Another who made progress was England's Steve Webster, who played flawless golf for seventeen holes. When he birdied the long uphill 17th it took him to nine-under and a share of the lead. But like many before him he bogeyed the 18th – his first dropped shot of the day – and finished in a tie for second with an excellent round of six-under.
Charl Schwartzel of South Africa was next up. Six birdies in his first 14 holes took him too to nine-under and a share of the lead. But a dropped stroke on his seventeenth hole, the par-3 8th, left him in a tie with Steve Webster.
Most frustrated of the morning finishers was Italian Francesco Molinari. He also started on 10, and by the time he reached the par-5 9th he was lying eight-under, four-under for the day and in joint second. As a general rule the field will be looking to birdie the 9th, but Molinari found himself in terrible trouble in the rough. When he finally reached the green he left himself with a two-footer for double-bogey; just to rub salt into the wound he knocked it nearly as far past the hole, and finished with an eight that dropped him to five-under in joint 9th place.
Lastly there was Lee Westwood, playing in the illustrious company of multiple Major-winners Jose Maria Olazabal of Spain and Angel Cabrera, neither of whom will make the cut. Starting at three-under, Westwood worked his way to seven-under with a run of four birdies from 11 through 14. But he too fell foul of a late wobble, bogeying his last, the 9th, to finish in a tie for sixth at six-under.
And so to the afternoon, and a look at whether any of yesterday morning's leaders can forge ahead. Kaymer started steadily with a series of pars that will stand him in good stead by the end of the day if he can keep things consistent.
(China.org.cn?July 4, 2009)
