Former Ryder Cup player Paul Broadhurst today put himself in contention for a
first victory in a decade in the Portuguese Open.
Broadhurst, unbeaten on his sole cup appearance in 1991, carded a second-round
66 at Oitavos Golf Club for an eight-under-par halfway total of 134.
That left the 39-year-old midlander in a share of the lead with Portugal's
Jose-Filipe Lima, who recorded a 65, and a shot ahead of another former Ryder
Cup star, fellow Englishman Barry Lane.
The early starters took full advantage of the calmer conditions on Portugal's
Atlantic coast, Broadhurst carding five birdies and no bogeys in a flawless
round.
"There was less wind and it was straight into you today whereas yesterday
every shot was into a cross wind which is a nightmare, especially round here
where there is a lot of trouble," said Broadhurst, whose last tour victory came
in the French Open in 1995.
"I was hitting it awful in the pro-am on Wednesday, everything was going
right and I couldn't see how I was going to get it round.
"But I came up early on Thursday and hit some balls before I went out and
tried not to worry about it. I did some work with my mental coach, John Pates,
and he just tried to get me to relax a bit because I was too uptight. He's
earned his money this week."
Lima looked like setting the clubhouse target after firing seven birdies in 16
holes, but became the latest victim of the treacherous 18th and had to settle
for a 65.
The 23-year-old represented his native France until the end of last season
when he adopted his Portuguese mother's nationality and changed his name from
Philippe to Jose-Filipe.
He won his first career title on the Challenge Tour in 2004 and followed that
up a week later with victory in the St Omer Open, a joint-sanctioned event
between the Challenge and main tour.
Meanwhile Lane had the satisfaction of gaining revenge on the treacherous 18th
in his second-round 67.
Lane was five under par and just one off the lead in yesterday's first round
before driving out of bounds on the last and running up a double-bogey six.
He was far from alone in struggling with the 474-yard par four, with Nick
Dougherty, Michael McLean and Peter Hedblom running up quadruple-bogey eights
while South African Richard Sterne recorded the solitary birdie.
More bogeys (67) were recorded than pars (62), and the average score for the
156-man field in the first round was 4.827.
But the 44-year-old made amends this morning with a 40-foot putt across the
green for one of his seven birdies.
Yorkshire's Simon Dyson almost made it a three-way tie for the lead but a bogey
on the last meant he had to settle for a share of second on seven under.
E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
Post to del.icio.us
Facebook