Bjorn loses his cool but keeps lead

Thomas Bjorn lost his cool with Colin Montgomerie in hot and humid Bangkok at the Johnnie Walker Classic.

Bjorn kept his lead by adding a 68 to his opening 64 - at 12 under he is two ahead of David Lynn and three in front of Nick Faldo at halfway.

But it was a second round the Dane will remember for a confrontation with the seven-time European number one.

The flashpoint came after Bjorn was distracted by Montgomerie as he prepared to chip onto their 16th green, a par five on which both ran up bogey sixes.

Once they had handed in their scorecards Montgomerie asked to speak to the Dane.

But a furious-sounding Bjorn told him to wait while he found tournament director Miguel Vidaor.

The incident came only two months after Bjorn waved in Montgomerie's direction at the Volvo Masters as the Scot stormed off a green after missing a putt, throwing a ball on to a cart path and nearly into a window as he went.

Any dispute between the two, however, appeared to have been thrashed out by the time they emerged from their "clear the air" talks.

Vidaor said: "They had some differences and they have been resolved. They have shaken hands on it."

Pressed on what exactly happened, Bjorn said: "You write whatever you want to write. Make up your own story if you need to because there is no story here. It's between me and Colin.

"What do you want me to say to you? You want to say that something happened out there? Something happens on a golf course all the time.

"So if you write something then you're writing something that's coming out of your mind. So you go and do that and then you'll have to deal with us afterwards."

What is a matter of record, however, is that Bjorn stopped and looked round just as he about to play his chip on the long seventh, their 16th hole.

Montgomerie, coming over a bridge after putting a ball in the lake and having to take a penalty drop, looked round himself. But it was clear to those watching that he was the one responsible for Bjorn pulling out of his shot.

And after missing his par putt Bjorn pointed his putter in the direction of his playing partner.

Montgomerie was in severe danger of missing the halfway cut after his opening 73, but a 67 meant he survived with two shots to spare and moved up from 94th into the top 40.

Faldo's 70 dropped him from second to third because 30-year-old Lynn had a 66.

Defending champion Ernie Els birdied the last two holes to climb to joint seventh on seven under with a 67, but Open champion Ben Curtis, the third member of the group, finished triple bogey eight, bogey five to crash from seven under to three under.

Asia-based Scot Simon Yates chipped in for eagle in a second successive 68 and stands joint fourth on eight under with Miguel Angel Jimenez and David Smail.