European Tour Release, 18 October 2019: Nicolas Colsaerts and George Coetzee lead the way going into the weekend at the Amundi Open de France after a day of testing conditions at Le Golf National.
Belgium’s Colsaerts mastered the cold and windy morning weather to top the leaderboard at nine under par with a round of 66, ignited by five birdies in six holes from the tenth.
“Made a few long putts that kind of gave me momentum into the back nine, which was nice, and then free flowing for the rest. Pretty happy with the way I ended these first two rounds. It’s just like every golf course. If you play the right shots, you can get it close and you can make birdies,” said Colsaerts.
“I think it will depend on the conditions. It’s not a golf course that you can go and get in attack mode 100 per cent of the time. It depends on the tee shots, wind direction and that kind of stuff. You can take a chance and try to take advantage on some of the holes. You have to choose them right I guess.”
He was joined by South African Coetzee, who bounced back from a double bogey on the 16th – his seventh hole – to also record five birdies in six holes after the turn.
“Very happy. The plan was to get a nice, late tee time so I can watch the rugby tomorrow morning. It was a tricky day. I think I got the good side of the draw there because the wind died down on the back nine, and you can see it started getting a little easier and made a couple more birdies,” confessed Coetzee.
“I wasn’t too upset with the front nine. I made one bad decision and played the other holes pretty well. It’s always nice to kind of build momentum going into the weekend.”
American Kurt Kitayama is one shot further back on eight under par, one shot clear of Scot Richie Ramsay, who recovered from a double bogey on the first to sign for a round of 69.
“Today was a lot tougher. Especially in the morning. It was really cold, and not really sure how far the ball’s flying,” opined Kitayama.
“Just grinding it out and really fighting for a good round. When it’s playing this tough, and you come out with a couple under, it feels really good. Coming into today, I was definitely thinking it was going to be really tough, but it was a lot of fun.”
Denmark’s JB Hansen is then in fifth place at six under par, with the leading Frenchman Benjamin Hebert, German Major winner Martin Kaymer, Ireland’s Gavin Moynihan and South Africa pair Brandon Stone and Jaco Van Zyl a shot further back.
Round two scores
133 G Coetzee (RSA) 65 68, N Colsaerts (Bel) 67 66,
134 K Kitayama (USA) 66 68,
135 R Ramsay (Sco) 66 69,
136 J Hansen (Den) 68 68,
137 B Hebert (Fra) 66 71, G Moynihan (Irl) 68 69, M Kaymer (Ger) 68 69, B Stone (RSA) 68 69, J Van Zyl (RSA) 67 70,
138 J Donaldson (Wal) 71 67, V Perez (Fra) 67 71,
139 H Swafford (USA) 74 65, S Brown (Eng) 71 68, S Chawrasia (Ind) 70 69, R Fox (Nzl) 65 74, T Detry (Bel) 71 68, K Samooja (Fin) 67 72, L Slattery (Eng) 71 68,
140 D Lawson (Aus) 68 72, M Kinhult (Swe) 69 71, S Cink (USA) 70 70, N Lemke (Swe) 73 67, H Leon (Chi) 68 72,
141 R Paratore (Ita) 69 72, A Sullivan (Eng) 70 71, J Lando Casanova (Fra) 69 72, G Green (Mas) 73 68, R Langasque (Fra) 68 73, C Saxon (USA) 70 71,
142 J Quesne (Fra) 70 72, O Fisher (Eng) 70 72, K Reitan (Nor) 68 74, B Dredge (Wal) 69 73, G Fdez-Castaño (Esp) 69 73, G Bourdy (Fra) 70 72, D Horsey (Eng) 70 72, S Horsfield (Eng) 70 72, J Scrivener (Aus) 69 73, S Gallacher (Sco) 70 72, J Smith (Eng) 68 74, C Paisley (Eng) 68 74, R Wattel (Fra) 72 70, J McLeod (Aus) 73 69, C Larcelet (am) (Fra) 71 71, J Ko (am) (Fra) 73 69,
143 M Warren (Sco) 71 72, T Immelman (RSA) 73 70, J Wang (Kor) 74 69, D Lipsky (USA) 71 72, N Højgaard (Den) 67 76, A Chesters (Eng) 70 73, T Pieters (Bel) 74 69, S Sharma (Ind) 72 71,
144 M Schmitt (Ger) 72 72, D Fichardt (RSA) 67 77, L Johnston (Sco) 68 76, B Evans (Eng) 71 73, L Herbert (Aus) 71 73, A Noren (Swe) 72 72, J Morrison (Eng) 71 73, C Shinkwin (Eng) 70 74, R McEvoy (Eng) 69 75, F Lacroix (Fra) 72 72, A Wu (Chn) 70 74, J Walters (RSA) 67 77
