Boult jumps into share of lead

New Zealander Elliot Boult boosted his chances of retaining a European Tour card by shooting a six-under-par 66 to become the early second round leader in the Italian Open on Friday.

Boult's round gave him a total of 132, a stroke better than Briton Ian Poulter, in-form South African Roger Wessels and Argentine Ricardo Gonzalez.

Poulter, who shot 67, is locked in a battle for Europe's rookie of the year award with fellow Briton Alastair Forsyth.

Another New Zealander, Stephen Scahill, was a stroke further back.

Front-runner Boult's seven birdies with only one blemish left European number one Lee Westwood with a tough afternoon task.

The Englishman, seven strokes off the lead, is bidding for his seventh win of the year to break the European Tour record and extend his lead on top of the rankings to $200,000.

Dane Thomas Bjorn will not be able to make any impression on Westwood's order of merit lead because the current European number four will miss the cut.

Bjorn's 72 for 144 left him two strokes more than the predicted mark to qualify for the weekend.

Boult's target is mere survival. He has lost his Australasian Tour card and has missed the last nine cuts in Europe to languish 157th on the order of merit.

His cause was not helped when his regular caddy failed to turn up for this week's event. That made his second round task more difficult.

"I had to use a girl from the club and she didn't have any experience at all. She didn't even know where to stand," said Boult.

"So I might have to find a different caddy for the weekend, now I'm up there.

"I need first or second this week for my card and if I'm in this position going into Sunday I'll be a little bit nervous. Yesterday was the first time I'd been under par in three months."

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