Ernie Els claimed the clubhouse lead as a prelude to his 45th birthday celebrations with a second round 65 at the Hong Kong Open.
The four-time Major winner started the day two behind leader Jyoti Randhawa, with the Indian among the later starters in Fanling, but swiftly took the lead with four birdies in five holes from the 13th after starting his round at the 11th.
The South African then fired a superb approach to the first to set up another gain, and picked up his sixth shot of the day after getting up-and-down from in front of the third green.
However, there were no further birdies, and Els dropped his only shot of the day at the fourth after hitting his tee shot into trees down the right and only managing to find a bunker with his second.
That gave Els a nine under par halfway total on his tournament debut, two clear of France’s Raphaël Jacquelin, who went round in 67.
“I played quite nicely and 65 is what I needed to do,” said Els.
“I’m looking forward to the rest of the week and obviously in a good position.
“I won’t have any alcohol to celebrate but I’ll have a bit of cake and relax back at the hotel and see what we do for dinner tonight.”
Australian Wade Ormsby was also seven under with one hole left to play, with Randhawa finding himself in a seven-way tie for fourth before teeing off.
Amongst those six under were also four players desperate to climb into the top 110 on The Race to Dubai before the end of next week’s ISPS HANDA Perth International in order to retain their cards.
The 111th-placed Lee Slattery, Andrea Pavan at 126, 135th-ranked Daan Huizing and SSP Chowrasia –down at 156th – were all doing their chances the world of good.
