Ferrie boosted by Shanghai ace
Helped by a hole-in-one, England’s Kenneth Ferrie charged into the lead at the HSBC Champions tournament in wet and miserable Shanghai today – and in the process took another step towards a Ryder Cup debut next year.
Ferrie sank his four-iron tee shot on the 209-yard sixth in his second round. The 27-year-old from Northumberland had already made a hat-trick of birdies from the second and even though he ran up a bogey six on the eighth he followed with an 18-foot putt to turn in 31.
Another bogey followed on the 11th, however, and at 10 under par the European Open champion – a title he took after co-leader Thomas Bjorn ran up an 11 on the penultimate hole – was sharing top spot with two other Englishmen, David Howell and Nick Dougherty.
With heavy rain returning and visibility poor it was unpleasant conditions for players and spectators alike and world number one Tiger Woods certainly did not enjoy himself on the 346-yard seventh.
A two-putt birdie at the long second had put Woods eight under, but five holes later he slipped over playing a chip from the side of a bunker and, with the ball not even making the green, he slammed his club against his bag.
He got out of the hole with a bogey five, but at seven under he had dropped from fourth to sixth and from one back to three behind.
Howell had birdies at the second, fifth and eighth, while Dougherty, one of the three overnight leaders, picked up more shots on the 11th and 14th after resuming on the back nine.
Ferrie currently stands sixth in the Ryder Cup race – and it could have been better as he lost a five-shot lead in the final round of the Dunhill links championship at St Andrews last month.
The player who beat him that day, Colin Montgomerie, had 10 shots to make up when he resumed on two over, but the eight-time European number one had three birdies in his first five holes to raise his spirits.
Paul Lawrie and Peter O’Malley, joint top with Dougherty after first-round 64s, remained eight under after 11 and 13 holes respectively.
They were joint fourth, one ahead of Woods, Ian Poulter and Tailand’s Thaworn Wiratchant.
World number two Vijay Singh was in the group one further back.
