IAN WOOSNAM shrugged off a painful hip to delight his big following with a four under par 68 to leap to the top of the leaderboard on the second day of the Ryder Cup Wales Seniors Golf Open at Conwy (June14).
After being one under par after nine holes he put in a storming finish with three birdies in the last five holes of the round to go to -2 for the tournament going into Sunday's final day.
He was later joined at the top of the leaderboard on -2 by England's Peter Mitchell, who birdied the last two holes to follow up his first round 72 with a two-under par 70.
Overnight leader Sandy Lyle struggled on the second day, and after a double bogey on the 15th he finished with a four-over par 76 and goes in to the final day three shots behind the joint leaders on +1 from his overnight position of -3.
England's Jim Rhodes is also on +1 while Scotland's John Chillas is on +2 after matching Woosnman's four-under 68 in his excellent second round, and four players are on +3 including Gordon Brand Jnr and New Zealander David Merriman, with Costantino Rocca one of four players on +4 after a second round 73
Woosnam said: “I played a lot better than I did yesterday. I hit some great drives on the par fives. I’m very happy with that round.
"When you get on a course like this you have to play little punch shots and manoeuvre the ball in the right way and I did that today.
“I was in agony all the way around the course with my left hip going into spasms, but it seems the further I get around the course the better it gets. At the start of the round it was very painful.
“Hopefully I can go out tomorrow and make another score like that and win my first Wales Seniors Open. Sometimes when you are playing in front of your home crowd you just pull that little bit extra out the bag."
John Barnett (Royal St David's) is on +18 after a second round 83.
The leaders tee off at noon in their final round on Sunday.

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit