Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee kept up his title defense by carding a second-round five-under 67 to take a share of the clubhouse lead at the Ballantine’s Championship yesterday.
The showpiece event on the South Korean island of Jeju, sanctioned by the Asian Tour, European Tour and the Korea PGA, has been reduced to a 54-stroke play tournament after fog badly disrupted the first round.
Argentina’s Tano Goya posted a 70 to move atop the leaderboard alongside Thongchai on a two-day total of eight-under 136, while two-time Asian Tour winner Johan Edfors of Sweden added a 71 to take equal sixth place.
The opening round disruption, where almost six hours of play was lost, left officials with no choice but to reduce the tournament to three rounds so as to ensure a finish tomorrow. The weather also meant that first-round leader Marcus Fraser of Australia will not return until this morning to begin his second round, along with the tournament drawcards that include three-time Major winner Ernie Els, Anthony Kim of the US and world No. 17 Henrik Stenson of Sweden.
Thongchai, who had to go back to the starting tee about an hour after the completion of his first round, kept up his momentum to ensure that his defense hopes remain intact at a blustery Pinx Golf Club.
“I played a total of 35 holes today and it was really a long and tiring day, but I’m really happy that I was able to play really well throughout the day,” the three-time Asian Tour Order of Merit winner said.
Thongchai, who returned with an opening 69 in the morning, enjoyed a bogey-free run on the back nine, with three birdies on the 10th, 17th and 18th holes. He then birdied holes two and four after the turn to take a share of the lead at eight-under through 13 holes.
A double-bogey on the sixth caused him to lose the lead momentarily, but he recovered strongly with two birdies on the seventh and eighth to leap back to the top of the leaderboard.
Asian Tour honorary member Y.E. Yang, meanwhile, is staring at the possibility of missing the cut after carding rounds of 77 and 73.
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