European Tour BMW International Open 2nd Round. Swede Joel Sjoholm Leads.

 

 

Joel Sjoholm / Getty Images

Joel Sjöholm of Sweden has a two shot lead at the halfway stage of the BMW International Open as he eagerly seeks his first European Tour title. Joel had a wonderful second round at the Gut Lärchenhof golf course, with two eagles and four birdies for a  -6 under par, 66, and a tournament total of -11 under par. The snappily dressed Swede is happy to be at the top of the leaderboard;

” Now I saw that I’m up there, and of course it’s going to be a new situation for me. But then I watched a lot of Euro Cup the last two or three weekends, I’ve seen what happens after four or five minutes, and I’m happy to be on top at the moment, but I would rather be on top on Sunday. I’m just enjoying this so much, I don’t really think too much about it. It’s just a great feeling and a fantastic tournament. I’ve always played here in Germany, and it was good to play well at the new venue.”

Chris Wood is one of the four players tied for second spot at -9 under par, he is happy to be in contention;

“It’s always nice to put yourself in contention. Nothing beats it really, and the more and more you can do it, the more chance you have to win and hopefully one will come along. The results haven’t really backed up the way I’ve played. I’m finishing top twenty with what I feel is top ten, top-five form really. I’ve just got to stay patient and wait for that to happen.”

The others joining Chris are; Danny Willett, Paul McGinley and Fabrizio Zanotti, and all have a real chance to go on and win this title, I personally would like to see the elegantly dressed Joel Sjoholm step up and take the win.

The highest ranked player in the field this week, Martin Kaymer, has missed the cut. It seems he could not recover from the jet lag he suffered on the trip back from the States to Europe. Martin missed the -1 under par cut line by just one shot, finishing his two rounds in par.

European Tour, BMW International Open

Fabrizio Zanotti -8 under par /  BMW International Open day 1 (Getty Images)

Marcus Fraser and Fabrizio Zanotti scored rounds of -8 under par, in good scoring conditions in Cologne to lead the BMW International Open in the opening round.

Fabrizio had an action packed round, it contained two eagles, seven birdies, a bogey and a double bogey;

“I played very well and made good putts, I only had hit one bad shot and made the double bogey, but I played really good. Tomorrow I’ll just try to play like I did today, come and play the course shot by shot and see what happens. I’m very happy because when I made the double, I made the birdies again. So I kept fighting and concentrating and I kept calm.”

Marcus Fraser said of his day;

It’s great, I played really well, drove the ball really straight, only missed one fairway.  Any time you do that, you’re going to give yourself plenty of chances. The greens were nice this morning and I managed to make a few putts and especially a few at the end, which was great. On 17 I just missed the left edge, so could have been six. But that’s always the story; we’re never happy. I played really well and gave myself a lot of chances so it was nice to roll a few in. Towards the end of last year it felt like everything took a turn for the better and I was heading in the right direction,” he added. “So if you keep giving yourself a chance you never know when it might happen, I just have to keep practicing and playing hard and hopefully it will happen sooner rather than later.”

They lead by one shot from Ireland’s former Ryder Cup vice captain Paul McGinley and English pair Danny Willett and Chris Wood.