ABERDEEN, United Kingdom: Justin Rose boosted his hopes of rare back-to-back PGA and European Tour successes after moving into the clubhouse lead on day two of the Scottish Open at Royal Aberdeen yesterday.
The current World number six and highest-ranked player in the field, posted a three-under-par 68 to move to five-under-par.
It moved Rose to within two shots of first round leader Rory McIlroy, who is competing in the afternoon half of the draw.
Rose arrived in north-east Scotland a fortnight after victory on the PGA Tour in Maryland.
The win was Rose’s 14th worldwide but also a first this season since capturing last year’s US Open.
Now the 33-year old Orlando-based Englishman not only looks for a seventh European Tour win but also has the opportunity of a rare double in winning on the PGA Tour and then winning in his next event on the European Tour.
It is an achievement Tiger Woods, Rose’s management stablemate, attained in both 2006 and 2008 when he won the Buick Invitational each year and then competed next on the European Tour to win his two Dubai Desert Classic titles.
“I haven’t played since I won at Congressional and then I didn’t do much practice last week for whatever reason and came here and played absolutely horrendous on Wednesday,” said Rose.
“For the last couple of days I have just been trying to find my feel but I got back into gear today and started to see good shots.
“So it was fun out there today and it’s the great thing about links golf as the wind was coming from a different direction and if you had to choose one type of course to play for the rest of your life you would choose a links course as it can play different every day.”AFP
