Lawrie leads in Qatar

Paul Lawrie has opened up a one-shot lead at the halfway stage of the Qatar Masters with a six-under par round of 66 on Thursday.

The Scot was already well placed after a first-round 67 in the UAE but he rolled back the years to go one better, with seven birdies and just one bogey seeing the veteran reach 11-under par after 36 holes.

The former Ryder Cup ace is one stroke clear of Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts, who backed up his opening 66 with a 68, while three players, Gregory Bourdy of France, England’s Andrew Johnston and Spaniard Rafa Cabrera-Bello, are a further shot adrift on -9.

Sergio Garcia carded a 66 to reach eight-under par and has Englishman Tommy Fleetwood plus Swedish duo Pele Edberg and Johan Carlsson for company.

Joost Luiten and Branden Grace are among a group of nine stars on -7 but it is Lawrie that they will all need to catch, and the 47-year-old confessed that a tip from compatriot Marc Warren has helped him over the past couple of days.

“He said the same as everyone else; my putting stroke is too long, it needs to be a little shorter and a little quicker. So I’ve been working on it the last couple days and certainly feels as though I’ve got it,” he said.

“I hit a lot of putts when I missed the cut last week. All day Sunday I did a lot of work and then came here and I’ve hit thousands of putts since I got here. So it’s only taken a couple days and it feels comfortable.”