BOB CAMERON LEADS BY TWO IN GERMAN SENIORS' EVENT

REPORT BY EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS

Englishman Bob Cameron put himself in contention to win his first title in nearly a decade with a fabulous nine under par 63 in the second round of the WINSTONgolf Senior Open.

The 60 year old had nine birdies on a flawless card – four of them in a row from his 14th hole – to lead by two from Scot Gordon Brand junior (68), Paraguayan Angel Franco (69) and Phil Jonas of Canada (71). 

On a day of higher scoring than in round one at WINSTONgolf in Germany – the effect of some trickier pin positions – Cameron made it look easy, and is in pole position to win for the first time since the 2004 Sanremo Masters.

“I can’t quite believe it myself,” he said. “I seemed to do my best to bogey the last but got it up and down from just short of the green, so that was good news. 

“I’ve had quite a few birdies this week, so perhaps I had the confidence to go for it. And Henrik (Buhrmann, his playing partner) played well, so that pulled me along a bit.

“I hit the ball very close and made the putts. You do get quite a lot of opportunities on this course and today I managed to make the most of it, which is what I didn’t do yesterday. 

“You’re going in with a lot of shorter irons and the greens are very receptive. I got the speed of the greens right from the start of the week, which was good – that doesn’t always happen.

“Tomorrow I’ll be trying to do the same. Another 63 should do it!” 

Brand Jnr and Jonas have struggled for form this season, so both were delighted to see a vast improvement in form.

Brand Jnr said: “I haven’t played well for getting on for 18 months now, but this week I found something on the range and with my putting that seems to be working. 

“It’s been ages since I was last anywhere near the top of the leaderboard heading into the last round, so I’m not putting any expectations on myself tomorrow.

“All I want to do is continue playing good golf and we’ll see where that leaves me.” 

Jonas, a graduate of the Qualifying School, added: “I’m very happy with the way I played. I didn’t finish well but I played very well overall. Even on those holes I bogeyed, I didn’t hit bad shots. That’s just golf.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve played golf tournaments, let alone led one going into the final round. Maybe that could be a good thing. We’ll see what happens.”

Englishman Phil Golding is another shot back at seven under – a remarkable achievement given he had a quintuple bogey nine on his second hole of the tournament on Friday – while three players – Tony Johnstone, Steen Tinning and David J Russell are at six under.

SECOND-ROUND SCORES
Par 144 (2x72)
134 B Cameron (Eng) 71 63
136 P Jonas (Can) 65 71, A Franco (Par) 67 69, G Brand Jnr (Sco) 68 68 
137 P Golding (Eng) 70 67
138 T Johnstone (Zim) 71 67, S Tinning (Den) 66 72, D Russell (Eng) 67 71
139 B Ruangkit (Tha) 67 72, J Spence (Eng) 66 73, P Eales (Eng) 72 67
140 P Fowler (Aus) 67 73, J Quiros (Esp) 68 72, M McLean (Eng) 70 70, I Woosnam (Wal) 65 75, N Job (Eng) 73 67, B Longmuir (Sco) 71 69, H Buhrmann (RSA) 67 73
141 P Wesselingh (Eng) 69 72, P Walton (Irl) 71 70, M Cunning (USA) 74 67, M Martin (Esp) 71 70, T Thelen (USA) 71 70, S Luna (Esp) 70 71
142 D O'Sullivan (Irl) 73 69, S Van Vuuren (RSA) 69 73, T Price (Aus) 70 72, M Harwood (Aus) 72 70
143 S Brown (Eng) 74 69, A Sherborne (Eng) 73 70, W Grant (Eng) 76 67, J Lindberg  (Swe) 74 69, J Harrison (Eng) 73 70, K Spurgeon (Eng) 77 66, M Kuramoto (Jpn) 72 71
144 G Manson (Aut) 72 72, J Rivero (Esp) 73 71, R Thompson (USA) 71 73, A Oldcorn (Sco) 73 71, G Ralph (Eng) 71 73, J Gould (Eng) 73 71, J Bruner (USA) 73 71, R Gibson (Can) 73 71, G Brand (Eng) 72 72
 145 G Ryall (Eng) 72 73, P Linhart (Esp) 73 72, S Bennett (Eng) 72 73, M James (Eng) 76 69, L Carbonetti (Arg) 72 73, E Darcy (Irl) 71 74, D Hospital (Esp) 76 69 
146 M Piñero (Esp) 74 72, N Ratcliffe (Aus) 72 74, G Wolstenholme (Eng) 73 73, C Mason (Eng) 74 72
 147 R Drummond (Sco) 74 73, M Farry (Fra) 73 74, T Elliott (Aus) 77 70, C Williams (RSA) 73 74, C Rocca (Ita) 74 73
 148 P Mitchell (Eng) 74 74, G Banister (Aus) 74 74, G Norquist (USA) 75 73
 149 S Cipa (Eng) 78 71, Z Martinez (USA) 74 75, J Carriles (Esp) 76 73
 151 D Smyth (Irl) 75 76
 152 J Laforce (Can) 76 76
 154 D Durnian (Eng) 76 78, T Giedeon (Ger) 79 75
 159 D James (Sco) 79 80
 160 H Francis (Eng) 82 78