Golf: Roe leads as Monty misses cut
Mark Roe sits proudly at the top of the Lancome Trophy leaderboard after two rounds despite a wasp sting that has swelled his wrist to three times its normal size.
The 38-year-old was worried he may not be able to compete but at the halfway point leads the race for the £150,000 first prize in Paris.
Roe, battling to avoid a first trip to the European tour qualifying school since 1984, scored a second successive 66 for a 10 under par halfway total.
Even without the swollen wrist, it was a remarkable performance by the Sheffield golfer, who since returning in March from 20 months out with a serious hand injury has not managed a top 10 finish and is 131st on the Order of Merit and 795th on the world rankings.
A day which saw Colin Montgomerie miss the halfway cut by one ended with Roe one ahead of Spain's Sergio Garcia and Londoner Anthony Wall.
He said: "I'm very allergic to wasp and bee stings and mosquito bites and when I saw this one coming towards me on the eighth tee in my first round I panicked as I always do.
"I swiped at it and it went down the flap of my glove and lodged. The second it stung I thought 'Oh no, why now? This is about the best I've been playing this year'.
"I couldn't have an injection because apparently one of the cortisones are illegal on the doping list in France and there was a chance they would be testing here."
As well as the events in America last week casting a shadow over everything, Roe was at the funeral on Monday of a friend of his wife, who died of cancer aged 38.
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned about keeping my tour card, but there are so many more important things in life than golf," he said.
"There would be no celebration if I won, no punching the air. It is not a time for celebration right now."
Montgomerie missed only three halfway cuts in Europe the past four seasons, but this failure was his fourth early exit this year.
"I've felt absolutely flat all week," he said, reminding everybody of golf's lack of importance at the moment.
He did improve seven shots on his opening 75 to be one over, but knew from the outset he needed level par.
Garcia was nine behind Roe when he bogeyed the second and third - but the 21-year-old came back with eight birdies in the next 10 holes for a 65.
Wall matched that score and almost matched the run, having seven birdies in an 11-hole stretch.
Retief Goosen, the overnight leader as well as the defending champion, US Open champion, Scottish Open champion and Order of Merit leader, added only a 71 to his 64 to drop three behind.
