Marc Warren suffered a double blow to his BMW PGA Championship bid, but he still feels eight shots is a surmountable margin over a weekend on the West Course.
Warren was “cruising” one shot behind Francesco Molinari as he reached the turn in his second round.
However a seven at the 12th and then a six at the 13th was a bit more than a mid-round wobble, and although he picked up two birdies on the way in, playing the final two par fives on one-over was not part of the recovery plan as he slumped to a 74 to finish on two-under for 36 holes.
“What a game,” he said ruefully, meaning golf in general. “You know there are possible double bogeys out there, you just don’t think they’re coming at the 12th and 13th.”
Misjudging a couple of lies and having to chip left handed produced the first double bogey on what might have been a birdie hole, and he didn’t recover his focus on the 13th.
“When I got the birdies at 15 and 16 I’m thinking, get it back to par for the day on 17 and maybe get another, but I hit a good putt at 17 that jumped right and then ended up under the lip of the bunker on the last,” he added.
Warren knows well that ground can be made up on this course, despite leaving himself a big gap to the leaders.
“You can make positive things happen here. If I strike out and go low tomorrow, I can get back in the hunt for a charge on Sunday.”
Scott Jamieson’s 68 got him in good position at two-under for the championship, following on from his final round 64 at the Spanish Open at the weekend, while Chris Doak, who has shown decent form here before, is on one-under.
However it was difficult day all round for the remaining Scots. Paul Lawrie pulled out of his second round with a groin problem, Richie Ramsay went out in 40 yesterday morning and couldn’t get back on track.
Greig Hutcheon also finished on three-over after a 75.