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Luiten retains slender advantage
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Luiten retains slender advantage

Joost Luiten held on to the clubhouse lead with a second round 69 at the ISPS Handa Wales Open.

Joost Luiten

The in-form Dutchman, fifth on home soil as defending champion at last week’s KLM Open, was briefly four shots clear after adding to his opening 65 with birdies at the 11th, 15th and 18th.

But a dropped shot at the long second and no further gains saw the 28 year old set a halfway target of eight under, and allowed Thailand's Thongchai Jaidee to close the gap to a single stroke following a 67, with Sweden's Patrik Sjöland on six under after also shooting 67.

Luiten also finished fourth in the 71° OPEN D'ITALIA Presented by DAMIANI three weeks ago and said: “I’m happy. Today I think I could have gone a couple better, but an eight under total and leading at the moment - I'm happy.

“It was tough today because the greens were very soft compared to yesterday with all the rain they had last night, and with the back pins, even seven irons spun back four or five yards, and it was tough to fly them all the way to the back.

“I’m in a nice position going into the weekend and we'll see what happens.”

Four of Europe’s Ryder Cup team who will defend the trophy at Gleneagles next week are in action at The Celtic Manor Resort, and Thomas Björn added a 69 to his opening 71 to lie two under par, while Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher missed the cut despite a one under par 70. Home favourtie Jamie Donaldson and former World Number One Lee Westwood were among the later starters.

Luiten was joined by Nicolas Colsaerts when the big-hitting Belgian turned in a three under 33, but bogeys at the tenth and 11th meant his share of the lead was short-lived.

That left Ireland’s Shane Lowry, who was four under through 11 and level with Jaidee on seven under, as the main threat on the course.

Donaldson was two under through ten and three under for the week, but playing partner Westwood was only level par for the day and at two over needed to find at least one shot on the way in.

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