The English duo of Zane Scotland and Lee Slattery, great friends from the same management stable, are united at the top of the leaderboard at the halfway stage of the Deutsche Bank Players’ Championship of Europe.
Scotland, playing only his second European Tour event after receiving an sponsor’s invitation to play at Gut Kaden after finishing joint 12th in the Open de France ALSTOM, birdied the last for a four under par 68 to set the target on nine under par 135.
Slattery then matched his feat, also birdieing his final hole, to join his friend tied for the lead following his three under par 69.
That left the pair one clear of another young Englishman, Oliver Wilson, and Argentina’s exciting young talent, Andres Romero, who, after his dramatic finish at Carnoustie where he missed out on the play-off by a stroke, is once again in contention on eight under par.
Spain’s Miguel Angel Jiménez, having adopted a belly putter for the first time this week, is a further shot back.
Scotland, who in 1999 became the youngest English player to qualify for The Open when he earned a place in the field at Carnoustie as a 16 year old, has not been in a major interview room since that day eight years ago. After a successful amateur career, Scotland suffered misplaced vertebrae after a car crash soon after he turned professional and it is only in the last 12 months he has been able to play and practice as he would like.
“I would be sitting at home watching the golf unable to play and thinking is this going to be it for the rest of my life,” admitted Scotland. “It’s a horrible thing. Mum and Dad kept me going. Without them, it might have been a different story but you hang on to a glimmer of hope thinking that I am going to make it. Then I see on TV my friends like James Heath and Nick Dougherty, and you stick with it. You were there one day and hopefully it is happening.
“I’m playing well. I’ve been playing well for a couple of months now and the way the first two days have gone, there’s no reason why I can’t carry on. I am enjoying this little stretch and will try and keep the momentum going.”
Slattery, winner of the Challenge Tour Rankings in 2004, lost his momentum when he had to drop off a pathway into thick rough. The subsequent flyer through the green cost him a shot and another bogey followed through frustration. But a holed 40 foot birdie putt on the par three fifth got him back on track and the birdie on the ninth, his last hole, put a smile back on his face.
“It was like four seasons in one day out there and that messes with your concentration levels. I had to work very hard out there but I'll have an early night tonight, have a good meal and refuel,” he said.
Wilson was the third of the young Englishmen in the top four after battling well in the tough conditions, as squall after squall hit the course, for a round of 70.
“I birdied the last which was a nice way to finish,” he said. "I’m happy with that. The back nine I was struggling mentally and let a couple of chances go on the par fives. I was disappointed but the birdie on the last brings an end on a happy note.”
Romero followed up his spectacular bid to win The Open with another exciting display. Romero's latest feats - a run of five birdies in six holes after an early double-bogey on the second - led to a four under par 68 that hauled him to eight under par, 136.
Reminiscent of Carnoustie on Sunday, though, Romero paid for aggression on his final hole, sending a birdie attempt eight feet past the cup and missing the putt back to close with a bogey.
Romero, in only his second year on The European Tour, agrees that inexperience cost him dearly last week. A double-bogey on the 17th at Carnoustie after he had gone into a two shot lead in the final round and a closing bogey left him third in The Open.
However, he has no intentions of changing his style of play.
"Experience is obviously something I'm looking for," Romero said through an interpreter. "But I won't change my way of playing. We are not machines. When I play a bad shot I'm not very happy but I keep going and hope to put it right."
While Romero finished only a stroke light of the Carnoustie play-off between winner Padraig Harrington and Sergio Garcia, Jimenez had to settle for a share of 12th place, five adrift of the play-off.
That was because of inferior putting, Jimenez said. So this week he tried out a belly putter for the first time.
"I saw that people had improved with the belly putter, Gregory Havret (winner of The Barclays Scottish Open) and Sergio included, so I started using it yesterday," Jimenez said.
"I don't know what's going to happen with it. But at The Open I hit the ball fantastic. It proved a pity for Sergio, leading for three days, and a pity for me, because I couldn't hole any putts."
