Then he sat down to watch Holland beat Brazil 2-1 in the World Cup quarter-finals – as he had predicted beforehand.

The game was screened during a thunderstorm delay of nearly two and a half hours at Le Golf National and when played resumed in the evening Derksen led by two from Indian Jyoti Randhawa, defending champion Martin Kaymer and Spain’s Alejandro Canizares.

Kaymer and Canizares, who double-bogeyed the 17th after joining Derksen out in front, had nine and eight holes to complete respectively.

Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, both doubtful before the start with leg problems, kept themselves in the hunt at three under by returning second rounds of 69 and 67 – but with less than two weeks to go to the start of The Open Westwood was limping badly over the closing stretch.

The world number three went to hospital for a check-up on Wednesday after it was feared he might have a blood clot, but tests proved otherwise and he revealed he has been battling with a sore Achilles tendon for seven months.

“I think I just need to ice it,” he said. “It doesn’t hurt when I swing – I guess a little bit on the way through – but it’s the walking.

“It doesn’t feel very nice on short, sharp hills and there are a lot of them around here.”

Westwood had a hat-trick of birdies early on, but bogeyed the 17th for the second day running and put his tee shot into the lake for a double bogey five at the short second.

As he came back with further birdies on the sixth and seventh, however, Derksen started getting into some trouble.

The 36-year-old had gone four clear by picking up shots on the 10th and 11th, but was in the water at the 13th and also bogeyed the 17th.

“The last five or six holes the driver wasn’t very good, but overall not too bad,” he commented. “It’s a difficult course and you know you are going to make mistakes.”

Poulter is pleased with his recovery from a bad reaction to an insect bite on Monday and did not drop a stroke.

Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald, the other world top 10 players in the field, resumed after the break four under and one under respectively – they had the back nine to play – while Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie was just inside the cut line at one over after bogeying the short 11th.

French star Jean Van de Velde, who in only his second event of the year began with a 66 for joint second place, set off again with a double bogey and stood two under after eight as the action got going again.