With his European Tour future hanging in the balance, Waterville's David Higgins came up with the round of his life in the Madrid Open yesterday.

A nine-under-par 62 containing nine birdies propelled the 28-year-old, 128th on this year's money list, into the halfway lead on the 13-under-par total of 129.

He is a stroke ahead of Order of Merit leader - come tomorrow night that should be Order of Merit winner - Retief Goosen, Steve Webster and Brian Davis.

A top-10 finish could spare Higgins a fifth trip to the tour qualifying school in three weeks, but he is aiming much higher after finding a new way to play.

"I've been putting too much pressure on myself and getting down, but coming here I just told myself to relax," he said. "If I do it I do it, but if I don't I'll just go to the school. I have nothing to lose and I'm trying not to think about the situation I'm in.

"Obviously the tournament starts now for me, but with the position I am in, to do this at this time is fantastic. It feels great."

Higgins nearly came up with the perfect finish of a hole-in-one at the 177-yard ninth, but the ball stopped an inch away from what would have been his seventh ace.

The tap-in gave him two halves of 31, and the round would have been a course record at Club de Campo but for cleaning and placing being allowed.

Higgins, the son of European Seniors Tour player Liam, also holed seven putts of between 10 and 22 feet and said: "I filled my mind with positive thoughts and holed some lovely ones."

When he won the Irish and South of Ireland amateur titles in 1994, the player he beat in the final both times was Padraig Harrington, this week's defending champion and first round leader.

The Ryder Cup player, who also won the 1996 Spanish Open on the course, could not rediscover the magic of his opening 63, and a 72 dropped him to six behind.

Des Smyth, who opened with a fine 65, struggled like Harrington to return a two-over-par 73.

Goosen, round in 64, can now get the Order of Merit celebrations ready. Darren Clarke, the only player who can catch him, could manage only a 69 for six under, and even if the Ulsterman still comes through to win, Goosen, £473,000 clear, would have to collapse totally to be overhauled.

Goosen - barring any major mishaps over the next two rounds - will be the first non-European to claim the Order of Merit title since Greg Norman in 1982.

Robert Graves once defined the lyric poet as a man who stands out in storms all his life hoping to be struck, occasionally, by lightning. It is a romantic image, but not one Retief Goosen would advocate. He really did get struck by lightning and lived to tell the tale. He was 17 years old, back home playing golf with his brother, and the strike left him with a heart flutter and partial deafness.

It is curious that this most steady of men should be lumbered for life with an anecdote about a bolt from the blue, although his win in this year's US Open could be counted as unexpected. A man boasting, as he then did, a career-record of four titles on the European Tour with seven more on home soil in South Africa, was not seen as championship potential.

The consensus among the players, though, was that everyone was pretty lucky Goosen did not seem to realise how good he was. When he flabbergasted the US public by winning the US Open, Thomas Bjorn put it best: "It may come as a shock to the world," the Dane said, "but not to the guys on the European Tour."

He went on to capture the Scottish Open in July, pushing his month's earnings over £1 million sterling in a burst which has proved decisive in winning the order of merit.

If he has neglected the opportunities of the US Tour recently it was because he wanted to secure the Vardon Trophy which goes to the European number one.