MARC WARREN ONLY SCOT TO BEAT

FIVE-UNDER-PAR CUT IN CHINA

Big-hitting Chapchai Nirat raced into a commanding six-shot halfway lead at the TCL Classic en route to matching the Asian Tour's opening 36-hole record on Friday.

In a tournament of very ow scoring, only those with FIVE-under-par halfway totals of 139 or better qualified for the final two rounds.

The only Scot to beat this sharpest of cuts was Marc Warren from East Kilbride, pictured right, with 70 and 67 for seven-under-par 137.
Nirat, the overnight Thai leader, maintained his sparkling form at Ya Long Bay Golf Club, Sanya in southern China, firing a six-under-par 66 for a 17-under-par 127 total which equalled the two-day record in relation to par held by Briton David Howell and Frankie Minoza of the Philippines.
On Thursday, Chapchai smashed the course record with a sizzling 61 which also equalled the 18-hole record in Asia.
The 23-year-old kept his foot firmly on the pedal in his bid for a maiden Asian Tour triumph, sinking one eagle and five birdies against a lone bogey, and leads comfortably from Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Gonet (66), Rafael Echenique (69) of Argentina and the Australian trio Simon Nash, Adam Blyth and David Bransdon, who all carded error-free 66s.
Chapchai, whose best finish on the Asian Tour was a runner-up outing in the 2005 Taiwan Open, dropped his first bogey of the tournament at the fourth hole but was delighted to double his overnight lead.

"EVERYTHING WAS VERY GOOD"
"The only thing on my mind was to keep hitting fairways and keep making putts. I just wanted to ensure I didn’t make any mistakes. Today my irons were good, my putting was good. Everything was very good.
"I just want to make as few mistakes as possible. I’m quite happy with my golf right now. The previous two weeks was not so good, but I feel comfortable this week. But I still feel a bit of pressure because I know that on a course like this, it’s possible for someone to catch me. So tomorrow I still have to score low," said Chapchai, who is presently 25th on the Asian Tour's UBS Order of Merit.

He is also counting on the support of experienced Thai caddie Manop Santhiap to help him pull of a maiden victory. "He caddied for Chinarat Phadungsil when he won on this course last year [Crowne Plaza Open last August]. He’s got a lot of experience and he’s helped me a lot this week."

The 24-year-old Gonnet, who graduated from the European Challenge Tour last season, enjoyed three closing birdies, including a chip-in on the par four 18th to head the chasing pack. "I hope to begin tomorrow morning like that," he said.
With Yalong Bay yielding birdies and eagles from all corners of the course, the swashbuckling Englishman, Nick Dougherty, is not ruling himself out, despite going into the third round trailing by eight shots.

DOUGHERTY STILL CONFIDENT
"There are a lot of birdies out there and every time you don’t make one you feel you’ve given up a good opportunity," said Nick who finished tied fourth last week in the Clariden Leu Singapore Masters.
"I feel I’ve left a few out there on the back nine. I was nine-under for the tournament after 10 holes, so to finish on that is a little disappointing, especially when the leader is pushing on like he is."
The halfway cut at five-under-par 139 was the joint second lowest in Asian Tour history, with 66 players moving into the final two rounds. Among the big names who missed the cut were Welshman Ian Woosnam, Filipino Frankie Minoza, Spaniard Ignacio Garrido and India's Shiv Kapur.

SECOND-ROUND TOTALS

Par 144 (2 x 72)
(Players from GB&I unless stated)
127 Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 61 66
133 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 67 66, Simon Nash (Aus) 67 66, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 64 69, David Bransdon (Aus) 67 66, Adam Blyth (Aus) 67 66
134 Carl Suneson (Spa) 66 68, Taichi Teshima (Jpn) 69 65, Brad Kennedy (Aus) 67 67, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 68 66, Wen Teh Lu (Tpe) 65 69
135 Richard Lee (NZ) 65 70, James Heath 72 63, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 73 62, Nick Dougherty 69 66, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 71 64, Sam Little 68 67, Miles Tunnicliff 70 65
136 Juvic Pagunsan (Phi) 68 68, James Kingston (Rsa) 66 70, Lee Westwood 66 70, Ashley Hall (Aus) 67 69, Oliver Fisher 67 69
137 Gary Rusnak (US) 67 70, Matthew Zions (Aus) 69 68, Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha) 69 68, Chawalit Plaphol (Tha) 68 69, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 67 70, Alexandre Rocha (Bra) 67 70, Scott Barr (Aus) 69 68, Marc Warren 70 67, Keith Horne (Rsa) 65 72, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 69 68, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 66 71, Peter Fowler (Aus) 69 68, Francois Calmels (Fra) 69 68
138 Wei Chih Lu (Tha) 72 66, Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 69 69, Matthew Richardson 71 67, Luis Claverie (Spa) 68 70, Neven Basic (Aus) 71 67, Birgir Hafthorsson (Ice) 68 70, Simon Griffiths 68 70, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 68 70, Steve Alker (Nzl) 67 71, Scott Strange (Aus) 69 69, Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn) 73 65, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 69 69, Kane Webber (US) 67 71, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 68 70, Mark Pilkington 68 70, Gareth Paddison (Nzl) 69 69, Danny Chia (Myn) 68 70, Simon Hurd 71 67
139 Ter-Chang Wang (Tpe) 73 66, Gaurav Ghei (Ind) 70 69, Unho Park (Aus) 68 71, Adam Groom (Aus) 69 70, Sung-Man Lee (Kor) 71 68, Scott Hend (Aus) 66 73, Stephen Scahill (Nzl) 71 68, Julien Foret (Por) 69 70, Iain Steel (Myn) 71 68, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 71 68, Paul McGinley 72 67, Barry Lane 68 71
DID NOT QUALIFY
140 Shu Tao Gu (Chn) 69 71, Mahal Pearce (Nzl) 70 70, Damien McGrane 69 71, Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 70 70, Ross Bain 73 67, Jason Knutzon (US) 70 70, Edward Loar (US) 73 67, Tony Carolan (Aus) 69 71, Young-Woo Nam (Kor) 71 69, Marcus Both (Aus) 69 71, Hendrik Buhrmann (SAf) 70 70, Michael Hoey 70 70
141 Frankie Minoza (Phi) 72 69, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 73 68, Christopher Hanell (Swe) 70 71, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 72 69, Paul Nilbrink (Swe) 70 71, Anthony Kang (US) 71 70, Thammanoon Srirot (Tha) 70 71, Chinarat Phadungsil (Tha) 69 72, Ted Oh (Kor) 71 70, Gavin Flint (Aus) 71 70, Cesar Monasterio (Arg) 68 73
142 David Carter 71 71, Yong-Huan Huang (Tpe) 74 68, Mitchell Brown (Aus) 70 72, Corey Harris (US) 71 71, Ben Leong (Myn) 75 67, Barry Hume 71 71, Martin Rominger (Swi) 73 69, Han Lee (US) 70 72, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 72 70
143 Richard Bland 70 73, Andrew Butterfield 70 73, Benn Barham 71 72, Chris Rodgers 74 69, Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 72 71, Jun-Won Park (Kor) 74 69, Ian Woosnam 72 71, Angelo Que (Phi) 73 70
144 Craig Smith 75 69, Amandeep Johl (Ind) 72 72, Gui Ming Liao (Chn) 75 69, Jong Yul Suk (Kor) 72 72, Steven O'Hara 72 72, Keng-chi Lin (Tai) 74 70
145 Yasin Ali 74 71, Per Barth (Swe) 73 72, Richard McEvoy 71 74, Olle Nordberg (Swe) 74 71, Mike Cunning (US) 70 75, Chang Song (Kor) 73 72, Lei Shang (Tpe) 71 74, Stuart Little 75 70
146 Ming Jie Huang (Chn) 71 75, Craig Kamps (Rsa) 74 72, David Gleeson (Aus) 76 70, Clay Devers (US) 74 72, Tze-chung Chen (Tpe) 72 74, David Higgins 72 74, Chao Li (Chn) 75 71
147 Christian Nilsson (Swe) 72 75, Andrew Raitt 75 72, Anda Liu (Chn) 71 76, Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) 73 74
148 Troy Kennedy (Aus) 74 74, Ari Savolainen (Fin) 75 73, Adam Le Vesconte (Aus) 71 77
149 Zhi-Jin Xiao (Tpe) 72 77, Edward Michaels (US) 75 74, Yongzong Tan (Chn) 76 73, Tadahiro Takayama (Jpn) 76 73, Guo-Jie Liu (Tpe) 75 74, Yu Chen (Chn) 75 74
150 Lei Gao (Chn) 78 72, Zhi-Feng Qiu (Tpe) 74 76
152 Wei-Huang Wu (Tpe) 74 78, Cui Lin Gu (Chn) 78 74