Johnnie Walker Championship report, scores

Lynn, Guerrier and Boyd share

halfway lead at Gleneagles


FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE
David Lynn joined European Tour rookies Julien Guerrier and Gary Boyd in a share of the halfway lead at the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.
The 36 year old Englishman Lynn has been a European Tour regular for over a decade, but despite consistently finishing in the top 100 on The Race to Dubai has only one victory to his name - the 2004 KLM Open.
But the former England Amateur international aims to change that this weekend after a second round 68 over the PGA Centenary Course.
"It's not happened a lot at all this year," said Lynn. "Maybe a touch of surprise, really, but as I spoke yesterday, coming back to a course I've done well at before, been staying patient all year, hoping my fortunes are going to change.

"A couple of good rounds, so sets me up nicely for the weekend."

By contrast Boyd and Guerrier are enjoying their first seasons on The European Tour - France's Guerrier came through last November's Qualifying School, while England's Boyd secured his card via The Challenge Tour.

After missing out on last week's Czech Open in a play-off to Peter Hanson, Boyd looks to have already secured his card for next season, and he admits that with the pressure off he is setting himself some lofty targets.

"This year I've had quite a few cuts I've missed by a shot, and it's been kind of a frustrating year," he said after a bogey-free 68.

"And obviously last week kind of didn't really surprise me that I was doing well. Started to hole a few more putts and I've got to try to take it into this week.

"Obviously my next goal is The Race to Dubai which I'm just outside, so hopefully we can have a good weekend here and push on from there."

Guerrier is currently 125th on The Race to Dubai, so knows the importance of a good finish here which would move him into the top 115 who retain their playing privileges.

"I saw Martin Kaymer, 26 years old, and he made the fantastic title in the US PGA and I said ‘he's a good player, but I'm a good striker and I can do it'" said the 25 year old, who shot seven birdies in a 67.

"So I try to do it and I don't try too much, just play your golf, play your best and go see the flag and play it. That's all."

Meanwhile Simon Dyson's dream of playing in The Ryder Cup is still alive with only two days of the year-long marathon to go.

"If I play the best 36 holes of my life I'll play in the best tournament of my life," said the 32 year old after a second round 70 kept him in joint seventh place.

However, it might not be enough even if he does go crazy and grab the victory he needs to have a chance of a debut at The Celtic Manor Resort in just over a month.
Spain's Miguel Angel Jiménez will keep out Dyson if he finishes in the top nine on Sunday - and after a 68 he is also six under par at halfway, three behind the co-leaders.
With big-hitting Alvaro Quiros, also on a win-or-bust mission, only just squeezing through the cut on one under par, the Yorkshire golfer looks like the main threat to Jiménez and Peter Hanson.
Swede Hanson won last week's Czech Open to move into eighth place on the points table and since he is also six under at halfway - so are Molinari and his brother Francesco - it looks like becoming a battle between Jiménez and Dyson.
Dyson felt unlucky that a squall came while he was on the 320 yard 14th - "the easiest hole on the course became a tough one," he said - but he had earlier made putts of 40 and 20 feet to save par at the second and fourth.
"I struggled with distance with my irons, but I missed only one fairway and my putting held my score together for the first few holes.
"I know what I've got to do and I'll just give it a go. If I'm three behind even with nine holes to go I still fancy my chances."
Playing partner Hanson birdied the last three holes for his second successive 69 and a 43rd place finish for him puts him in the side regardless of what anybody else does.
Jiménez had hopes of something special when he birdied three of the first four, but it was only when he birdied the par five last - like Dyson - that he moved to four under for the day.

SCOREBOARD
Par 144 (2x72)
135 Gary Boyd 67 68, Julien Guerrier (Fra) 68 67, David Lynn 67 68
137 Stephen Gallacher 67 70, George Coetzee (S Africa) 69 68, Mark Foster 70 67
138 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 68 70, Simon Dyson 68 70, Peter Hanson (Swe) 69 69, Robert Rock 67 71, Marc Warren 68 70, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 70 68, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 68 70, Paul McGinley 68 70, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 70 68
139 Damien McGrane 72 67, Sam Walker 68 71, Ross Fisher 72 67, Soren Hansen (Den) 74 65, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 70 69, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 69 70, Bradley Dredge 71 68
140 Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 70 70, Oliver Wilson 70 70, Nick Dougherty 68 72, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 72 68, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 71 69, Steven O'Hara 70 70, Richard Finch 66 74, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 70 70
141 Brett Rumford (Aus) 71 70, Robert Coles 72 69, Gary Lockerbie 68 73, Tommy Fleetwood 73 68, Phillip Price 72 69
142 Richard Bland 67 75, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 72 70, John Parry 72 70, Sion E Bebb 72 70, Paul Waring 69 73, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 73 69, Marcel Siem (Ger) 71 71, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 70 72, Oliver Fisher 69 73, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 72 70, Marco Ruiz (Par) 71 71, Paul Lawrie 69 73, Simon Thornton 71 71
143 Anders Hansen (Den) 71 72, Robert Dinwiddie 72 71, Graeme Storm 71 72, Stephen Dodd 71 72, Miles Tunnicliff 69 74, Martin Wiegele (Aut) 72 71, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 71 72, Fredrik Ohlsson (Swe) 72 71, Rhys Davies 73 70, James Morrison 71 72, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 72 71, Sam Hutsby 72 71, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 68 75, Phillip Archer 70 73, Jamie Donaldson 69 74, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 69 74, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 71 72, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 73 70

MISSED THE CUT

144 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 75 69, Carl Suneson (Spa) 75 69, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 69 75, Colin Gillies 71 73, Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 73 71, Kris Nicol  (Fraserburgh) (am) 71 73, Thomas Levet (Fra) 71 73
145 Andrew Coltart 73 72, Kenneth Ferrie 71 74, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 76 69, Callum Macaulay 73 72, Stephan Gross junior (Ger) 70 75, Mark F Haastrup (Den) 68 77, Rick Kulacz (Aus) 70 75, David Dixon 70 75, Andrew Marshall 70 75, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 73 72, Tano Goya (Arg) 71 74, Pablo Martin (Spa) 72 73
146 George Murray 74 72, Anton Haig (Rsa) 74 72, Hennie Otto (Rsa) 71 75, Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 72 74, Julien Quesne (Fra) 77 69, David Orr 71 75, Scott Hend (Aus) 72 74, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 69 77, Shane Lowry 72 74, Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 73 73, Barry Lane 73 73
147 Chris Gane 75 72, Andrew Butterfield 70 77, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 72 75, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 70 77, David Howell 73 74, Colin Montgomerie 71 76, Peter Baker 77 70, Richard McEvoy 73 74, Scott Drummond 77 70, Peter Lawrie 72 75, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 76 71, Eirik Tage Johansen (Nor) 74 73, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 77 70
148 Steve Webster 72 76, Benn Barham 70 78, Mark Brown (Nzl) 74 74, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 75 73, Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 72 76, Tony Carolan (Aus) 76 72, Mark Kerr 78 70, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 73 75, Ariel Canete (Arg) 71 77, Sam Little 70 78, Gregory Havret (Fra) 74 74
149 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 74 75, Henrik Nystrom (Swe) 72 77, Peter Whiteford 71 78, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 76 73, Johan Edfors (Swe) 73 76, Stephen Gray 72 77, Anthony Wall 70 79, Anthony Kang (USA) 74 75, Andrew McArthur 74 75, Alastair Forsyth 77 72
150 Danny Lee (Nzl) 73 77, Andrew Tampion (Aus) 76 74, Gary Murphy 73 77, Jason McCreadie 79 71, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 75 75, Chris Paisley 78 72, Fraser Mann 79 71
151 Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 77 74, Richie Ramsay 75 76, James White (Lundin) (am) 79 72, Oskar Henningsson (Swe) 75 76, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 78 73, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 77 74
153 Craig Lee 78 75, Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 76 77, Marcus Both (Aus) 76 77
154 Paul Broadhurst 73 81
155 Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 81 74, Soon-sang Hong (Kor) 73 82
156 Gary Clark 75 81
159 Andrew Oldcorn 80 79
WD: 83 Sam Torrance
RTD: 75 Clodomiro Carranza (Arg), 80 Carlos Rodiles (Spa)