test2wa

European Tour

For a while, Chinese Taipei's Lin Wen-tang felt like he was on top of the world on Friday.

The Asian Tour star charged into the lead midway through the second round at the US$7 million WGC-HSBC Champions after going out in 31 at the Sheshan International Golf Club.

However, Lin endured a disappointing inward nine and settled for a 72 to end the day in tied 10th place, five shots behind co-leaders Tiger Woods and Nick Watney.

Lin, last year's number two ranked player in Asia, admitted he got ahead of himself after brilliantly shooting five birdies in his opening nine holes at Sheshan.

"On my front nine (back nine on the course), I hit it very good and putted very good. After making the turn, I knew I was leading by two, and I told my caddie, ‘okay, maybe we can lead by five, or six at the end of the day.' But my caddie told me that I was too fast, too quick," said Lin, who won the Mercuries Taiwan Masters this season for his fifth win in Asia.

He soon found trouble with a bogey on the first hole and then double bogeyed the par five second hole after sending an errant approach shot into the hazard. Further bogeys at four and six saw him fall off the pace.

With a good lesson learnt, Lin remained optimistic of challenging for the HSBC Champions title, Asia's first World Golf Championship event. He knows he must cope better with the tough front nine holes at Sheshan and have so far shot 11 birdies on the back nine over two rounds.

"I've hit good scores on the back nine. But the first nine, it's not good for me. The par fours are very long on many holes but I'll keep trying," he said.

India's Jyoti Randhawa ended the day in tied eight place, four behind the leaders after a 70. He was pleased to give himself a chance after enduring some difficult months with indifferent form despite winning the Singha Thailand Open on the Asian Tour earlier this year.

"I'm well focused and whenever I got a chance I took advantage of that and that was a good point today," said Randhawa, who was Asia's number one in 2002.

"Getting into a good position in two days, it does help you to focus better. I know what I need to do and I'm focused on that and I'm confident. Golf is the same, every week is a new week and you have to forget about the past and stay in the present and focus hard."

Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand is aiming to improve on his tied 14th position after adding a 69 to his opening 71. Playing alongside world number one Tiger Woods, the current Asian Tour number one held his game nicely but knows he must go low on Saturday to have a shot at the title.

"I'm trying my best all the time. You have to play a lot of good tee shots and the greens are a bit tricky," said Thongchai. "The game plan is very important here."

Woods said he enjoyed Thongchai's company over the past two rounds. "He was just a great guy. I had met him before but I had never played with him. It was nice to get out there and play with him the first two days," said the American superstar.

"Did I brush up on my Thai? No, I did not. We spoke English. (Laughter) Yeah, most of the words I know are not the good words!"