Lars van der Vight set a new course record at Hangzhou West Lake Golf Club with a second round ten under par 62 to take a one-stroke lead into the weekend of the Hangzhou Open.
Winner of last week’s Hainan Open, van der Vight made ten birdies without a blemish for the second week running on his way to a 62, reaching 13 under par at the halfway stage.
The Dutchman says his iron play and putting has been to thank for his exceptional recent form, as he looks for back-to-back wins in China.
“I keep hitting good irons shots and making lots of putts” he said. “I feel like the irons have been great over the last couple of weeks and the putter has been listening.
“It felt like it was an easy round. I made very little errors, only missed one green, so a nice and easy round today.
“It’s a great golf course. I feel like it tests all 14 clubs in your bag and you need to be good in all aspects of the game to shoot a good score round here.”
After a three under par 69 on Thursday, van der Vight quickly started to ascend the leaderboard in round two, making a pair of birdies on 11 and 12, his front nine, with another following on 15.
He then made three straight gains around the turn from 17 to one, before four more followed on the easier front nine, seeing him to the historic round.
After notching his second win of the season in Sanya last week, which moved him up to sixth in the Road to Mallorca Rankings, van der Vight says he’s playing with a weight off his shoulders.
“Last week obviously took some pressure off with winning, but I’m just trying to play as good as I can for the next two days," he added.
“I’m trying to do the same things as last week which after a win is pretty hard to do. But we’ve done a great job over the last two days, and we’ll try and keep it going.
“We’ll just do our best and we’ll take what this week gives us.”
Kristian Hjort Bressum is van der Vight’s closest competition, the Dane carding a second round 67 to be one back at 12 under. Compatriot Hamish Brown and Filip Mruzek of the Czech Republic share third a further shot back, with English duo Chris Wood and Frank Kennedy rounding out the top five at ten under.
Round three begins on Saturday at 7:20am local time, with van der Vight teeing off at 11:19am alongside Bressum and Mruzek.
