Liam Bond took full advantage of a last-minute invite to soar to the top of the leaderboard heading into the weekend at the ISPS Handa Wales Open as he aims to become the tournament\u2019s first home winner.<\/p>\n
The Welshman, who lives ten minutes from the famous Celtic Manor Resort and is the touring professional at the nearby St Pierre Golf Club, carded a solid three under par second round of 68 on a day when many struggled with the difficult conditions and tough pins.<\/p>\n
One of those was first round leader Espen Kofstad, who sits in tied second place alongside Tjaart Van der Walt having followed up an opening 64 with a three over par 74. Meanwhile, the Norwegian\u2019s playing partner and 2014 Ryder Cup Captain Paul McGinley moved into contention to win the first tournament of the points race to Gleneagles.<\/p>\n
But it was Bond who stole the limelight and the 43 year old is now dreaming of a fairytale home victory having received a call the day before the tournament to accept an invite following a late withdrawal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI only found out I was getting in on Wednesday afternoon,\u201d said the Southport-born professional. \u201cI didn’t have any time to over\u2011prepare like I have done in the past, I just turned straight up and played, and it has worked out well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve been playing well all year. Since I lost my card in 2011, I’ve been playing regional golf and I’ve won three times there, so I feel like my game is still pretty good.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s my first tournament now for a year and a half, so it’s nice to be in a position to do well. I think the pressure’s off really. I’m not trying to grind out and keep my card, so I’m just trying to play and enjoy it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played really nicely yesterday and it’s nice to carry it on today. With it being so tough and windy, there is always a potential banana skin and you can drop a few early and you’re in a bit of trouble. I’ve just been pretty steady.\u201d<\/p>\n
McGinley moved to within two shots of the lead on three under thanks to a two under par second round 69 and he was joined in fourth place by France\u2019s Gr\u00e9gory Bourdy (73), Spaniard Rafa Cabrera-Bello (68), Englishman Graeme Storm (67) and Peter Uihlein (70) of the USA.<\/p>\n
Photo: Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liam Bond took full advantage of a last-minute invite to soar to the top of the leaderboard heading into the weekend at the ISPS Handa Wales Open as he aims to become the tournament\u2019s first home winner. The Welshman, who lives ten minutes from the famous Celtic Manor Resort and is the touring professional at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t