News All Articles
Li Haotong leads at halfway stage of 2022 BMW International Open
Report

Li Haotong leads at halfway stage of 2022 BMW International Open

Li Haotong remains one shot clear at the top of the BMW International Open leaderboard after following up Thursday's stunning 62 with a 67 on the weather-affected second day.

Li

It was a tale of two nines for early starter Li at Golfclub München Eichenried on Friday, as he made an eagle, four birdies and two bogeys on the front side before carding one birdie and eight pars after the turn.

The Chinese star was already in the clubhouse on 15 under par by the time play was suspended for almost two hours due to threat of lightning at 15.46 local time.

When the second round resumed, Ryan Fox closed to within one shot of Li after putting the finishing touches to a spotless 64 which contained an eagle and six birdies.

Daan Huizing was alone in third on 12 under after closing his second-round 69 with a birdie, while a brilliant burst of scoring following the suspension saw Thomas Pieters join Jordan Smith on 11 under.

Starting the day with a one-shot lead, Li showed signs of the form that had seen him equal the course record on day one, holing from almost 20 feet for a birdie at the short second.

After giving the shot straight back on the third, Li birdied the fifth before firing an eagle at the sixth for the second day in a row.

Another bogey followed at the seventh but Li bounced back in style, rolling in his birdie putt from 26 feet at the eighth before spinning his approach at the ninth to four feet and sinking the putt for the fourth birdie of his front nine.

A two-putt birdie on the 11th took Li to 15 under par and a big par save from ten feet at the 17th kept him there.

Li closed his second round with a par to set a testing clubhouse target, with no-one able to catch him.

He said: "It's another good day in the office, which is very pleasing.

"I'm feeling great. I think I’ve only missed two cuts this year. It’s been working, especially off the tee, I’ve improved a lot and it’s back to where I was.

"I just need to keep grinding, keep improving and showing up.

"I was feeling the pressure on the last few holes and I think the weekend will be the same.

"Hopefully I can just play my golf and keep calm."

Fox picked up his first birdie of the day from six feet on the fifth hole before holing his eagle putt from 14 feet on the sixth green.

Back-to-back birdies on the ninth and tenth took Fox to 11 under before play was suspended, and he made further progress upon the resumption.

After birdieing the 11th from close range, he holed from 33 feet for another at the 14th before closing his round with his sixth birdie of the day to climb to 14 under.

Fox said: "I’m really happy. I did everything right the last couple of days and my short game has been really tidy – that’s been a big positive.

"I don’t think I’ve ever gone bogey-free for 36 holes. I’m happy and in with a chance over the weekend again.

"I had a couple of really good shots just before the delay and I was really disappointed we stopped. Obviously we had no choice, it was pretty dark out there.

"It was a little scratchy the first couple of holes coming back, but I made a nice birdie on 11 and then a 35-footer on 14, then hit some good shots coming home after that.

"It would mean a lot (to win). There’s a lot of good names on this trophy and a lot of good names playing this week. It’s the goal over the weekend, there’s a lot of golf to be played though, so we’ll see what happens."

Read next