Hansen weathers tough conditions in Cologne

Defending champion Soren Hansen avoided the worst that Cologne’s weather could throw at him to move up the leaderboard in the Mercedes-Benz Championship today.

Patchy fog delayed the start of the second round by 30 minutes at Gut Larchenhof and was then replaced by heavy rain to make life even more miserable for the early starters.

With a redraw unusually taking place after the first round, the leaders were out last at 1pm with England’s Richard Finch sharing the lead with new Omega European Masters champion Jean-Francois Lucquin.

The pair were a shot ahead of Sweden’s Robert Karlsson, one of four members of Europe’s Ryder Cup team taking part. Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez and Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell shot opening rounds of 72 while Denmark’s Hansen returned a 73.

However, as the rain eased off Hansen resumed with birdies at the first two holes to improve to one under par, currently a share of 12th place and five shots off the lead.

The bad weather had contributed to a number of high scores with former Masters champion Fred Couples – who started eagle-birdie yesterday – taking a triple-bogey seven on the second and bogey on the third.

And India’s Jyoti Randhawa was faring even worse, running up a triple bogey on the fifth and then taking a 10 on the par-four sixth.

In the end it was quite a good 10 too, Randhawa losing three balls off the tee and making a solid ’par’ with his fourth ball, although after a front nine of 47 he was dead last of the remaining 77 players on 16 over par.

Daniel Vancsik had withdrawn before the start of play with a shoulder injury. The Argentinian carded an 81 in the first round.