Bernd Wiesberger was delighted with the way he handled the windy conditions at Sheshan International Golf Club as a second round 66 moved him into contention at the World Golf Championships - HSBC Champions.
The Austrian was three under for his round as he stood on the 14th tee but a run of three birdies catapulted him up the leaderboard and he finished the day eight under - six shots behind leader Kevin Kisner.
Wiesberger's 66 was only beaten by the 65 of Russell Knox - Kisner also signed for a 66 - and with players conceding conditions were more difficult than they had been on Thursday, the Alstom Open de France champion was happy with his day's work.
"That's a good score today," he said. "It's quite windy out there. Obviously tougher than yesterday.
"It's all around and sometimes it's tough when you maybe get underneath the top of the branches to know 100 per cent where the wind is coming from and a couple elevated tee shots, as well.
"Definitely it's a bit more of a challenge than yesterday."
He added: "I played decent - I had a couple of bad breaks, a couple of good breaks.
"I still felt like I left a lot of shots out there on the greens, even though I hit good putts. But it's tough to read some of them.
"All in all I played really, really steady golf today. I would have liked to maybe get into double digits.
The score in these conditions today, I'm quite happy with that -Bernd Wiesberger
Branden Grace was two shots better off than Weisberger after following his opening 63 with a 71 and he agreed that the wind made life a lot more difficult in round two.
"It was tough out there," he said. "The wind was blowing. It's hard as most of these holes are tree-lined, so it's tough to really trust the wind. I think that's one of the things I struggled with on the back nine."
Grace had been three under for his round through ten holes but bogeys on the 11th and 15th saw him slip away from the lead.
"I played pretty well through ten holes and didn't really make mistakes, but maybe lost a little bit of concentration and then you're going to let a couple slip out there," he said.
"But I'm still up there. It would've been nice for a couple of putts to go in towards the end, but I think I'm only a few back. It's still I long weekend ahead."
Patrick Reed was sandwiched between Grace and Wiesberger at nine under but he did not feel the conditions were too much of a problem for him as he fired a 70.
"I didn't really feel like the conditions were as tough for me," he said. "Just my tee shots, I wasn't starting them down the lines I wanted to.
"For me it kind of seems a little bit more swing-oriented, rather than conditions, because when I did hit the fairway, I seemed to really light up the flags.
