Rhys Davies failed to follow up his promising start to the Celtic Manor Wales Open by carding a second-round 73.
In a morning where the scoring wasn’t particularly high, Davies went round two over-par to slip down the
leaderboard.
After a bogeyless opening round, Davies began in the worst possible fashion, dropping three strokes in the opening two holes. But he responded after taking six at the 458-yard par-four 12th by holing a putt on the par-three 13th for his first birdie of the day.
Another bogey on the 499-yard par-four 16th pushed Davies back to one-under and a miserable opening nine was complete when he missed a par-putt on the 1st to go back to level-par.
The man from Tradegar was again playing conservative golf but his tactics paid off with an accurate approach round the dog-leg right of the 433-yard par-four 5th. He holed just his second putt of the round to move back to one-under.
But the improvement with the putter was short-lived as he missed from five-feet on the 439-yard par-four 7th for a poor bogey.
Davies needed a strong finish to remain in contention in his home tournament and birdied the final two-holes to finish two under-par.
A good lay-up and chip to within four-feet allowed him take to four at the par-five 9th and then an excellent tee-shot and seven-foot putt saw him take two on the 10th to leave the Welsh contingent happy with their local boy.
Many had expected the easier morning conditions to produce the lower scores of the day but no player in the field made a serious move on the leaderboard, except Luke Donald. The star attraction at the Celtic Manor carded a course record-equalling 65 to finish two-under and ensure his participation at the weekend.
