German MastersEngland's Anthony Wall fired a superb 62 to claim a share of the halfway lead with Jose Maria Olazabal at the Linde German Masters in Cologne yesterday. Ireland's Graeme McDowell and Damien McGrane finished on three-under-par 141 to make the cut but defending champion Padraig Harrington missed out despite a second round of 69 which left him two outside the mark which came at 142.
Gary Murphy and Peter Lawrie also made their exit on 144 and 146 respectively. Murphy fired a 74 for 144 and Lawrie a 72 for 146.
Meanwhile, Wall carded 10 birdies in a flawless second round and even had a first sub-60 score on the European Tour in his sights after six birdies in his opening six holes.
Another birdie on the 17th - he started on the 10th - took him out in just 29 but the Londoner could only manage three more for an 11 under par total of 133.
Olazabal was almost as impressive with a 65 while Ryder Cup star Paul Casey confirmed his return to top form after a long slump with a second consecutive 67 to lie one shot behind.
Wall won the Dunhill Championship in Johannesburg in 2000 but has struggled to reproduce that form since with just one top-three finish.
However, as is increasingly the case, working with a sports psychologist has paid instant dividends. "I started seeing Nick Hastings, who works with Michael Campbell, last Friday," added the 30-year-old.
"I wanted a few new ideas because I felt my game had gone stale. I'm a much better player than I was when I won but I wasn't seeing much progress.
"There's only one reason for that and that's your brain. It's our biggest club although we all deny it."
Olazabal could no doubt identify with that statement after saying before the tournament he had never performed well on the Jack Nicklaus-designed course.
"The best finish I've had was 12th last year and until then it was always down the pack or miss the cut," said the double US Masters champion.
"You need to hit the fairways here and for whatever reason I found it tough to do that, except today, and that was the key."
Casey was alone in third on 10 under, one ahead of Retief Goosen, David Lynn, Marc Cayeux and Nick Dougherty.
Dougherty carded the best round of that quartet with a 64 to strengthen his grip on the last qualifying place for the Britain and Ireland team for the Seve Trophy.
The 23-year-old is €5,000 ahead of nearest rival Kenneth Ferrie in the Order of Merit, and ended the day five shots ahead after Ferrie could only manage a 72.
Australia's Marcus Fraser had been right in contention on seven under par before running up a bizarre 11 on the 18th, which included four penalty shots.
While taking a penalty drop after hitting his third shot into water, Fraser's caddie incorrectly picked up the ball as it rolled back towards the water before it had crossed the line marking the hazard.
That meant a two-shot penalty and, not realising this had happened, Fraser then dropped the ball for a second time when he should have placed it where it had been stopped initially.
Another two-shot penalty for playing the ball from the wrong place meant a triple-bogey seven became an 11, and from two off the lead on the 18th tee, Fraser was back to level par and missing the halfway cut.
The most amazing scoring feats came within 10 minutes of each other from players in the same group.
First Sweden's Joakim Backstrom holed his second shot to the par five third from 227 yards for an albatross two, then playing partner Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano fired a hole-in-one on the par three fourth - both players using a five iron.
