Lawrie in position to pounce

SPURRED on by a burning desire to get into the world’s top 50, France’s Raphael Jacquelin made the most of the dry and sunny afternoon conditions to surge to the top of the leaderboard at the Dunhill Championship, carding a 65 to take him to 13 under par at the halfway stage.

Jacquelin 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.

The Frenchman 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.

Sharing second place are Irishman Peter Lawrie and Germany’s Marcus Siem, who both also revelled in the conditions.

Jacquelin believes that 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 morning belonged to European Tour rookie of the year Lawrie who carded an eight-under-par 64 despite suffering with an ankle injury.

“I hurt my left ankle, like an Achilles tendon injury,” he said. “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.

“Just this morning, 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.

“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.”

The cut came at three under par and the 2002 champion Justin Rose was one of the players who missed out on the cut.

But defending champion Mark Foster was luckier, making it right on the mark after a 69. Lee Westwood added a 70 to his opening 68 to reach six under, seven shots off the pace.