Malaysian Open: Forsyth’s good game earns him lead

Scotland’s Alastair Forsyth kept on his feet long enough to carve out a one-shot lead in the rain-interrupted Carlsberg Malaysian Open.

Forsyth was on the point of collapse at one stage on Thursday as he struggled to cope with high humidity and temperatures of 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Kuala Lumpur.

Confident he could remain in contention for as long as he could remain upright, Forsyth did just that, adding a second-round 65 to his opening course-record 63 at Royal Selangor.

That gave the 26-year-old Glaswegian a one-stroke lead over Spain’s Miguel Angel Martin, who had set the early clubhouse target by equalling the record established on Thursday by Forsyth and England’s Barry Lane.

‘‘I played just as well as yesterday but felt a lot better which is probably more important,’’ said Forsyth, who is playing on a sponsor’s invite after losing his card by just one place on the Order of Merit last year.

‘‘I’m not sure if it was a little cooler today or I was better prepared but I still felt a bit funny on the last few holes when we came in and went back out again.’’

Forsyth had just birdied the sixth hole - his 15th - when play was suspended amidst another torrential downpour, but play resumed in time for him to finish the round before nightfall.

‘‘I actually had a 10-foot putt for eagle on the sixth when it was really lobbing down but it was one of those where you hit it as quickly as possible and get back under cover,’’ he added.

‘‘But overall I’m delighted with my position. I’ve kept it out of trouble and had one bogey in two rounds, and came back with a birdie straight after that anyway.

‘‘I’m not hitting it the best I ever have but I’m keeping it in play all the time and my short irons have been good, that’s been the key.’’

Forsyth was the only player able to overhaul the formidable target set by Martin, the forgotten man of Europe’s victorious 1997 Ryder Cup team.

Martin claimed the 10th and final automatic qualifying place for the team, but suffered a wrist injury in the latter part of the season and was unable to prove his fitness in time.

The 39-year-old was replaced in the 12-man team by compatriot Jose Maria Olazabal, 11th in the qualifying table, but was included in the official team photograph before leaving Valderrama to watch the contest at home.

The wrist injury eventually required surgery and a recurrence of the problem restricted him to just eight starts in 1998. A third European Tour title arrived at the Moroccan Open the following year, but Martin was again struck by injury in 2001 and played only 10 events.

Playing this season on a medical exemption after surgery on his right elbow, Martin had missed three cuts in five events, including last week in Singapore, but found form with a vengeance to set the early pace.

One of 36 players to complete their first round this morning following a two-hour delay due to a thunderstorm on Thursday afternoon, Martin made a birdie at the last of three holes he had to finish for a five-under-par 66 and, after a quick turnaround, continued where he had left off.

An eagle and five birdies saw him six under for his round after six holes, and another birdie at the ninth took him out in 29.

‘‘I was thinking when I holed the putt on the ninth about breaking 60 (never achieved on the European Tour) but the back nine here is very difficult,’’ said Martin, who did shoot 59 on a par-70 course on his way to winning the South Argentinian Open in 1987.

Sure enough, Martin could only add one more birdie but it all added up to a 63 and outright second place, two shots ahead of Korea’s Anthony Kang.

Meanwhile Nick Faldo’s recent resurgence came to an abrupt end as he slumped to a second-round 79 to miss the halfway cut.

The six-time major winner had finished 10th, sixth and third in his last three events, the most recent coming in Singapore last week, and looked as if he was edging closer to his first European Tour victory since 1994.

The 44-year-old carded a first-round 68 but was quickly in trouble this morning, and his misery was complete when he miscued his approach to the ninth his final hole and watched as it landed on a concrete path to the right of the green, bouncing 10 feet into the air and onto an overhanging terrace.

The resulting double-bogey six left Faldo on five over par, six shots outside the cut.

Like many of the players, Faldo struggled badly in the blistering heat and reckoned he had never experienced such extreme conditions ever before in his 26 years on tour.

‘‘I haven’t played in humidity like this,’’ said Faldo. ‘‘Not even the US Open in Tulsa was as bad as this. It just hit me.

‘‘I felt terrible last night and terrible this morning. I guess it took it out of me yesterday and you don’t realise.

‘‘You’ve got to drink but you don’t want to drink any more. You feel like you have four gallons inside your stomach. I feel like a jellyfish, that’s the best description.

‘‘It will be nice to dry out, inside and out, and just get down to a couple of pints of water instead of gallons.

‘‘The body suddenly tells you you can’t go on. I’ve had five tough weeks, two in Australia, two flying around the world and a tough week last week. The body just says, ‘Hang on a minute, I’m the boss’.

‘‘I hit lots of bad shots because I just couldn’t feel the tempo or timing of the whole swing. I hit about three shots straight right, including a five-iron out of bounds on the last.’’

Ireland’s Padraig Harrington carded a 67 to move to five under alongside Ian Woosnam, Michael Campbell firing a 66 to finish seven under.

Collated scores and totals in second round of Carlsberg Malaysian Open, Royal Selangor Golf Course, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia:

(Gbr & Irl unless stated, Par 71, (x) denotes amateurs)

128 A Forsyth 63 65

129 MA Martin (Spa) 66 63

131 A Kang (Prk) 66 65

132 I Garrido (Spa) 65 67

133 P Golding 66 67, A Cejka (Ger) 68 65, M Lafeber (Ned) 66 67

134 A Singh (Ind) 67 67, M Cunning (USA) 69 65, S Leaney (Aus) 67 67, B Lane 63 71

135 A Pitts (USA) 69 66, RS Johnson (Swe) 68 67, M Campbell (Nzl) 69 66, J Randhawa (Ind) 66 70, B Kennedy (Aus) 68 67, R Gonzalez (Arg) 65 69

136 C Rodiles (Spa) 67 69, P Marksaeng (Tha) 69 67

137 T Levet (Fra), S Tinning (Den) 69 68, J Haeggman (Swe) 72 65, J Bickerton 70 67, P Harrington 70 67, D Terblanche (Rsa) 70 67, S Ishigaki (Jpn) 68 69, I Woosnam 68 69, Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn) 68 69, A Coltart 69 68, H Kahlon (Ind) 65 72

138 M Pilkington 69 69, E Romero (Arg) 68 70, T Wiratchant (Tha) 66 72, P Gunasagaran (Mal) 70 68, N O’Hern (Aus) 67 71, J Sandelin (Swe) 69 69, P Sjoland (Swe) 68 70, D Botes (Rsa) 68 70, D Maruyama (Jpn) 69 69

139 S Dyson 69 70, R Wessels (Rsa) 70 69, G Havret (Fra) 69 70, C Hanell (Swe) 69 70, K Felton (Aus) 69 70, T Purdy (USA) 71 68, J Moseley (Aus) 66 73, A Marshall 70 69, R Jan Derksen (Ned) 72 67, G Rusnak (USA) 69 70, Wook-Soon Kang (Prk), Keng-Chi Lin (Tai) 69 70, W Bennett 68 71

140 Wei-Tze Yeh (Tpe) 68 72, H Nystrom (Swe) 71 69, Wen-Chong Liang (Chn) 72 68, S Kjeldsen (Den) 71 69, J Berendt (Arg) 70 70, K Druce (USA) 69 71, O Nordberg (Swe) 73 67, A Hansen (Den) 69 71, B Rumford (Aus) 69 71, T Sriroj (Tha) 71 69, AD Bateman (Can) 71 69

141 O Karlsson (Swe) 70 71, R Jacquelin (Fra) 68 73, C Williams 70 71, M Mouland 72 69, C Pena (USA) 70 71, C Plaphol (Tha) 68 73, T Jaidee (Tha) 73 68, P Senior (Aus) 70 71, C Kamps (Rsa) 71 70, C Wi (Prk) 72 69, C Gane 69 72, G Rosales (Phi) 71 70, D Zarate (Phi) 70 71, S Kammann (USA) 71 70

Missed the cut:

142 J Hobday (Rsa) 69 73, S Yates 72 70, R Green (Aus) 71 71, D Gleeson (Aus) 71 71, Yong-Eun Yang (Prk) 69 73, T Hussain (Pak) 74 68, J Kingston (Rsa) 72 70, K Eriksson (Swe) 70 72, Yu-Shu Hsieh (Tpe), E Loar (USA) 71 71

143 J Rutledge (Can) 70 73, M James 74 69, G Emerson 73 70, G Hanrahan (USA) 74 69, P Baker 73 70, D Chopra (Swe) 73 70, A Percey (Aus) 73 70, G Ghei (Ind) 71 72, B Ruangkit (Tha) 71 72, M Mamat (Sin) 70 73, T Gillis (USA) 75 68, S Hansen (Den) 71 72

144 Chie-Hsiang Lin (Tpe) 71 73, J Johnson (USA) 75 69, J Van de Velde (Fra) 69 75, S Muda (Mal) 73 71, R Bain 72 72, A Meeks (USA) 71 73

145 M Lundberg (Swe) 76 69, M Brier (Aut) 72 73, F Quinn (USA) 71 74, Zaw Moe (Mya) 75 70, Kyi Hla Han (Mya) 70 75, Chia-Yuh Hong (Tpe) 73 72, S Scahill (Nzl) 71 74, L Parsons (Aus) 73 72, A Rizman (Mal) 73 72

146 Yuan-Chi Chen (Tpe) 71 75, N Van Rensburg (Rsa) 71 75, D Chia (Mal) 71 75, A Forsbrand (Swe) 67 79, Ter-Chang Wang (Tpe) 75 71, M Foster 75 71, S Murthy (Mal) 71 75, C Devers (USA) 71 75, T Dier (Ger) 72 74, M Ramayah (Mal) 73 73, N Dougherty 72 74, SA Lindskog (Swe) 73 73

147 N Faldo 68 79, J Donaldson 76 71, (x) S Hussin (Mal), G Norquist (USA) 72 75, P Broadhurst 76 71, R Ismail (Mal) 72 75, V Bhandari (Ind) 75 72

148 (x) S Hunt (Nzl), C Rocca (Ita) 74 74, H Buhrmann (Rsa) 71 77, T Johnstone (Zim) 73 75, P Del Olmo (Mex) 75 73

149 (x) S Supramaniam (Mal) 72 77, A Atwal (Ind) 74 75, M-V Hastrup (Den) 72 77, S Taylor (USA) 73 76, R Bland 73 76

150 A Johl (Ind) 74 76

151 (x) Sl Saedin (Mal) 73 78

153 (x) Eng Seng Lim (Mal) 75 78

Retired: Sung-Ha Hwang (Prk), G Clark, Ted Oh (Prk)