It's an earth-shaking 60 by

Ian Poulter as he leads

Hong Kong Open
NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY THE ASIAN TOUR
The earth shook literally at the UBS Hong Kong Open today when England ’s Ian Poulter rumbled to a magnificent 10-under-par 60 for a one-shot second round lead.
The flamboyant Ryder Cup star, pictured, put on a master-class performance at the Hong Kong Golf Club, sinking 10 birdie putts to lead the US$2.5 million showpiece sanctioned by the Asian Tour and European Tour from back-in-form Anthony Kang of the United States , who fired an equally impressive 61.
World No. 10 Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, playing alongside Poulter, looked set for the joint lead but double bogeyed the 18th hole after sending his poor approach into the watery grave for a 66 to lie two back with former Hong Kong Open champion Simon Dyson, who returned a 65.
Two-time Asian Tour No. 1 Jeev Milkha Singh of India and reigning number one Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand kept up the Asian charge with a 67 and 64 respectively for tied fifth place, three behind. US O pen champion Graeme McDowell shot his second straight 65 for fifth place as well.
World No. 14 Poulter was undoubtedly the star on a day when an earth tremour, which lasted several seconds, was felt by players, spectators and officials at the club. An earthquake with a magnitude of 2.8 on the Richter Scale was recorded by the Hong Kong Observatory at 2:42 pm.
But the way Poulter tamed the tricky Fanling course with his swashbuckling style of golf, it was no surprise that the earth literally shook. “I would rank it pretty high to be honest,” said Poulter of his lowest career round.
“I had a lot of chances. I could have holed a couple more but I mean, it's a good round of golf,” added the Englishman, whose effort would have been a new course record if not for the preferred lie ruling being in effect. It was also only the fourth ever 60 recorded on the Asian Tour.
An inspired Poulter turned in 29 with five birdies, including a 30-foot conversion on the ninth after McIlroy had spectacularly holed out with a seven iron for an eagle two.
When Poulter got to eight under through 14 holes, a first ever 59 on both Tours loomed but the Englishman parred the next three before rolling in an eight footer for birdie at the last.
“Yeah, mixed emotions. Five‑under on the front nine was a great score. I kind of felt there were plenty of chances coming in. So, you know, happy but slightly disappointed,” said Poulter, who has nine wins on the European Tour.
He said he wasn’t put off by the earth tremor. “I wondered what it was. I was just about to pick my ball up (on the 14th tee). I did feel a little tremor, It was a bit strange.”
Kang surprised even himself by shooting his career best round with nine birdies to charge into contention. The Korean-born American has struggled to find his best form since winning the Malaysian O pen early last year, missing far too many cuts for his liking.
Such was his sparkling form that the scorer went “wow” upon checking his scorecard. “Yeah, she's shocked. Every time I turn in a score to her, it's always like 74, 75. So it was a surprise to her. A surprise to me, as well,” smiled Kang.
Kang won his third Asian Tour title last year before venturing to Europe but has struggled to replicate his Asian form in the continent. “It was fun getting it on the green and hitting a good putt and watching it go in the hole. It was hap pen ing hole after hole and hopefully it will carry on,” said Kang, who will turn 38 on November 30.
McIlroy was disappointed with his late blemish. “Obviously a very disappointing way to finish but I played well up until that point so I can't really complain,” said the 21-year-old. “At one stage it looked like he (Poulter) could shoot 59, and it was great. He played really good. We were both hitting good shots out there. He's playing very well and he'll be tough to beat this week.”
Singh, battling tendinitis in his right shoulder, turned in 31 but took his foot off the pedal with three bogeys on his inward nine. He said he got ahead of himself, especially, with a bogey on the par five third hole.
“I tried to draw a three wood into that flag which is abnormal for me. I think I got ahead of myself there; management was wrong, and hit it in the water and made a bogey,” said the Indian, who was third at the UBS Hong Kong Open in 2006.
“When you put yourself in a good position like this, I think it gives you a lot of confidence and I think I'm feeling pretty good about it.”
Thongchai, holder of an unprecedented three Order of Merit titles, enjoyed a blazing finish with four closing birdies to end his round. And for the first time in months, his putter worked like charm throughout 18 holes.
“The putting was very good. We had long putts from more than 20 feet. My feeling is confident now with the putting,” said the Thai . “I think the same game plan tomorrow, make a lot of fairways and greens. If you have good putts, you are going to have a good chance.”
Title holder Gregory Bourdy of France shot a 66 and will enter the weekend rounds five behind Poulter.
SCOTSWATCH (by Colin Farquharson): Colin Montgomerie (69-68 137)  beat the cut - 138 or better qualified - reasonably comfortably but it was a tight squeeze for David Drysdale, Stephen Gallacher and Paul Lawrie, all of whom made it through to the weekend action on the limit mark.
Drysdale ahd rounds of 67 and 71, Gallacher 68 and 70, and Lawrie 68 and 70.
On his website, Paul wrote:
"Another very frustrating day on the greens (32putts) meant that I shot level par 70. I gave myself a lot of birdie chances but couldn't get the putts to drop. I've just got to keep at it and hope the putts will start to drop."
Lawrie was out in one-over-par 35 with a bogey at the ninth but got ahead of the game with birdies at the long 13th and 16th. A bogey at the 17th put him under pressure to get a par at the last to make the cut - which he did.
Aberdonian Richie Ramsay missed the cut for the second week in a row after her sterling third place finish among the stars at the HSBC Champions. How could Richie miss the cut in Hong Kong after an opening round of 66 in which he had gone out in 30?
Answer: Bogeys at the first, short eighth and ninth for 37 to the turn and then, after birdieing the 14th and 15th, a catastrophic double bogey 6 at the 18th for a 73 and a total of 139 - one shot too many.

FORSYTH JOINS WARREN IN TRIP TO Q SCHOOL

Alastair Forsyth, pictured, missed out on 142 with scores of 69 and 73. He had a bad run with a bogey at the sixth, a double bogey at the seventh and another bogey at the eighth to turn in four-over-par 38. Another bogey at the 10th meant he was really up against it and birdies at the 17th and 18th were too little, too late.
Forsyth, 34, will now have to join Marc Warren in heading for the European Tour Final Qualifying School at PGA Catalunya next month. Alastair has held a Tour card for the past 11 years but, occupying 127th position in the Order of Merit, he needed a top-six finish to climb into the leading 115.
SECOND-ROUND TOTALS
Par 140 (2x70)
127 Ian Poulter 67 60
128 Anthony Kang (USA) 67 61
129 Rory McIlroy 63 66, Simon Dyson 64 65
130 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 63 67, Graeme McDowell 65 65, Anders Hansen (Den) 66 64, Matteo Manassero (Ita) 67 63, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 66 64
131 Soren Hansen (Den) 64 67, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 67 64, Kenneth Ferrie 65 66, Mark Brown (Nzl) 62 69, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 68 63
132 Jamie Donaldson 66 66, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 66 66
133 Michael Hoey 68 65
134 Gareth Maybin 67 67, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 67 67
135 Damien McGrane 65 70, David Howell 66 69, Sung Lee (S Korea) 67 68, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 66 69, John Daly (USA) 69 66, Tony Carolan (Aus) 70 65, Scott Barr (Aus) 68 67, Iain Steel (Mal) 69 66, Jbe Kruger (Rsa) 69 66, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 69 66, Gregory Havret (Fra) 69 66, Kunal Bhasin (Ind) 68 67, Y E Yang (S Korea) 68 67
136 Ben Leong (Mal) 68 68, Scott Strange (Aus) 68 68, Wen-Tang Lin (Tpe) 68 68, Rhys Davies 65 71, Darren Clarke 72 64, Peter Lawrie 70 66, Young Nam (Kor) 65 71, James Morrison 67 69, A Siddikur (Bd) 72 64, Juvic Pagunsan (Phi) 67 69, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 68 68, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 68 68, Joong Kyung Mo (Kor) 66 70
137 Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 69 68, David Gleeson (Aus) 70 67, Colin Montgomerie 69 68, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 68 69, Graeme Storm 69 68, Jason Knutzon (USA) 70 67, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 69 68, Marcus Both (Aus) 67 70, Mark Foster 70 67, Paul McGinley 69 68, Bradley Dredge 67 70
138 Seung-yul Noh (Kor) 70 68, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 72 66, Chinnarat Phadungsil (Tha) 68 70, Pariya Junhasavasdikul (Tha) 69 69, David Drysdale 67 71, Stephen Gallacher 68 70, Paul Lawrie 68 70, Kodai Ichihara (Jpn) 67 71, Danny Chia (Mal) 70 68, Thomas Levet (Fra) 69 69

MISSED THE CUT
139 Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 71 68, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 71 68, Mars Pucay (Phi) 71 68, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 69 70, Udorn Duangdecha (Tha) 67 72, Prom Meesawat (Tha) 68 71, Anirban Lahiri (Ind) 67 72, Christian Nilsson (Swe) 70 69, Richie Ramsay 66 73, Hennie Otto (Rsa) 67 72, Chris Wood 69 70, David Horsey 66 73, Nick Dougherty 70 69, Rikard Karlberg (Swe) 71 68, Chih-bing Lam (Sin) 73 66, Tano Goya (Arg) 66 73, Angelo Que (Phi) 70 69, Antonio Lascuna (Phi) 71 68
140 Ben Fox (USA) 72 68, Oliver Wilson 65 75, Robert Rock 69 71, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 71 69, Peter Karmis (Rsa) 72 68, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 69 71, Steve Webster 69 71, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 69 71, Yih-shin Chan (Tpe) 69 71, Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn) 71 69, Simon Khan 70 70, Brad Smith 69 71, Matthew Rosenfeld (USA) 70 70, Thammanoon Srirot (Tha) 66 74, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 71 69, Ross McGowan 71 69
141 Hirotaro Naito (Jpn) 72 69, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 72 69, Wei Chih Lu (Tha) 71 70, Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha) 71 70, Simon Griffiths 68 73, Chawalit Plaphol (Tha) 70 71, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 69 72, Alexander Noren (Swe) 71 70, Shane Lowry 68 73, Richard Finch 71 70, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 72 69, Ariel Canete (Arg) 71 70
142 Kwanchai Tannin (Hkg) 70 72, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 71 71, Shaaban Hussin (Mal) 74 68, Alastair Forsyth 69 73, Unho Park (Aus) 69 73, Wen-hong Lin (Chn) 74 68, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 68 74
143 David s Johnson (USA) 70 73, Darren Beck (Aus) 71 72, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 72 71, Rick Kulacz (Aus) 72 71, Andrew Dodt (Aus) 73 70, Shinichi Mizuno (Hkg) 73 70, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 72 71
144 In-choon Hwang (S Korea) 71 73, C j Gatto (USA) 75 69, Mark Purser (Nzl) 69 75
145 Himmat Rai (Ind) 71 74, Derek Fung (Hkg) 74 71, Keith Horne (Rsa) 73 72, Digvijay Singh (Ind) 75 70
147 Gerald Rosales (Phi) 71 76
148 Timothy Tang (Hkg) 70 78, C Muniyappa (Ind) 73 75, Chris Rodgers 73 75, Gavin Flint (Aus) 79 69
152 William Fung wai kuen (Hkg) 76 76, Jovick Lee (Hkg) 72 80
153 Woon Man Wong (Hkg) 73 80
158 Alexander Cheng (Hkg) 82 76