Calm Grace storms into lead
Grace reached the halfway stage on 12-under-par overall, four strokes ahead of Briton Lee Slattery and South African Thomas Aiken. The 23-year-old won the Joburg Open last week and is currently leading the Race to Dubai.
“I have a real calm out there which is a big relief. It’s great to keep the nerves down and just go out there and play golf. I’ve changed my routines a bit, I’m taking my time, sticking to what club I’m going to hit and keeping things as simple as possible. I’m just sticking to my game plan and minding my own business,” Grace told a news conference after his round.
Slattery produced the round of the day – an eight-under-par 65 – to join Aiken in a tie for second on eight-under, with Europe Ryder Cup captain Jose-Maria Olazabal alone in fourth-place on seven-under-par.
Nicolas Colsaerts, Louis Oosthuizen, Raphael Jacquelin, Hennie Otto, Paul Lawrie, Alexander Noren and Retief Goosen have all completed two rounds in 140 strokes, six-under-par.
Overnight leader Colsaerts, who shot a course-record 64 in the first round, came undone on the front nine, reaching the turn in four-over-par 40, but the Belgian got three birdies on the back nine to compensate for two more bogeys.
The 33-year-old Slattery birdied the first two holes to give himself the ideal start and then claimed three successive birdies from the fifth hole to maintain the momentum. The Englishman drained a 25-foot downhill birdie putt on the par-four 10th hole to make up for a bogey on the par-five ninth, and then collected four more birdies on the back nine, while dropping just the single shot, on the par-three 11th.
“It was just one of them rounds I’m going to remember for the rest of my life and hopefully it can kickstart something for me. I think it’s probably the best round of my career, with it being such a big event, with so many great players and playing with Retief Goosen,” Slattery said.
“I decided to play the course a bit more aggressively and hit a lot more drivers off the tees. I putted well and just took on a few more shots out there.”
Only winners of European Tour events in the previous year, plus active golfers who are under the age of 50 and have at least 10 career wins, are invited to the two million euro event, which pays out 350,000 euro to the winner.