Two-way tie at Scottish Open midway point
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SWEDEN’S Alexander Noren and Italian ace Francesco Molinari lead the way going into the weekend of the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open at Castle Stuart.
The score of 12 under par keeps the duo at the top of the leaderboard, followed by two chasers in Argentina’s Ricardo Gonzalez and Italian Matteo Manassero, who are just one shot off the pace.
Molinari blasted his way to first place on Thursday, thanks to his course record-equalling score of 62, but a triple bogey on the seventh hole in round two left him trailing Noren before he caught up to level by the end of the day.
India’s SSP Chowrasia’s round of 67 sees him sit alone at 10 under par, just two shots from top spot.
World number one, and Scottish Open title holder, Luke Donald is nicely positioned on nine under par - the same as Ireland’s Peter Lawrie, German Martin Kaymer, Englishmen Mathew Baldwin and Anthony Wall, Spaniard Alejandro Canizares and Thorbjorn Olesen from Norway.
The cut is four under and that’s the score recorded by South Africa’s Ernie Els, Spanish star Angel Miguel Jimenez and Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher and Steven O'Hara, who will all return on Saturday morning for round three.
Other Scots firmly in contention are Peter Whiteford (eight under), who hit a hole-in-one at the 11th hole, Marc Warren (seven under), Martin Laird (six under) and Alastair Forsyth (five under).
Early on Saturday morning, amateur Jack MacDonald is also showing terrific form, sitting in six under par.
Missing out on the cut, however, was Aberdeen’s Open winner from 1999 Paul Lawrie, with a score of two under, the same as Scott Jamieson and Gary Orr.
Other Scots not making the grade included Colin Montgomerie (one under), David Law (three under) and George Murray (three under).
For the live European Tour leaderboard, click here – http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2012/tournamentid=2012050/leaderboard/index.html
