Goosen races ahead

Retief Goosen continued where he left off on Thursday as the second round of the Commercialbank Qatar Masters got under way today.

The South African carded four birdies and made par on the rest of his first nine holes to move to 11 under at the top of the leaderboard.

Just behind however was Nick O’Hern after the Australian made similarly good progress on the back nine, shooting five birdies without dropping a single shot.

O’Hern’s compatriot Richard Green moved to third after carding an eight-under 32 on front nine.

Chris DiMarco made a drastic improvement on yesterday’s disappointing one-over-par finish as he recorded five birdies in 10 holes and moved to four under.

Nick Dougherty was six under after birdies on the fourth and seventh meant he reached the halfway stage with a two-under 34.

Ernie Els carded a double bogey on the par-four 12th but made four birdies and was at five under while Darren Clarke continued to struggle. Clarke will need to make a massive improvement if he is to make the cut as he completed his outward nine at one over and is on a four-over-par 76 overall.

Defending champion Henrik Stenson and Miguel Angel Jimenez, who produced a good round yesterday to finish tied in second place, tee off later in the morning.