Lawrie makes bright start

Scotland’s Paul Lawrie quickly got into his stride in the second round of the Madeira Island Open.

The former Open champion moved to the top of the leaderboard at seven under par in calm conditions at the hilltop Santo da Serra course.

Lawrie, four-under overnight, made a blistering start and eagled the par-five 11th hole, his second after beginning on the back nine.

That took him to joint top of the leaderboard with Sweden’s Jarmo Sandelin, who was due out later.

Lawrie then moved into the outright lead with a birdie at the 12th hole.

It was a confident start by the man who famously won the Open at Carnoustie in 1999.

He was moving along nicely and chalked up pars at the 13th, 14th and 15th holes.

Lawrie missed the cut in the Bay Hill Invitational in America last week but used that to his advantage.

He spent four hours on his free Saturday practising in the Orlando sunshine.

Lawrie has been close to returning to the winners’ enclosure in the last 12 months with two second-place finishes on the European Tour.

It was beginning to bunch up at the top, though, with Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium moving to six-under after a superb run.

The Belgian began with a bogey at the first but then chalked up birdies at three, five, seven, eight and nine to go out in 33.

It was a welcome return to form by Colsaerts, who had missed the cut in his previous four events.

He was joined by Stephen Gallacher who began with birdies at the 10th, 11th and 14th to shoot up up the leaderboard.

Ben Mason also started brightly after falling away yesterday. He picked up shots in two of his first three holes to move to five-under.