Schwartzel closes in with record round

South Africa's teenage golfing hope Charl Schwartzel broke the K Club North course record by two shots on Friday to surge to within a stroke of the European Open second round lead.

Schwartzel's immaculate eight-under-par 64 began with an eagle and included six birdies, four in the last six holes, as he moved to eight-under-par 136, only a stroke behind British 2002 Ryder Cup pair Darren Clarke and Phillip Price.

It was Schwartzel's latest attempt to claim his maiden European Tour title after an impressive start to his rookie year in which he has finished third and sixth.

The former English Amateur Strokeplay champion, who came on to tour with an illustrious amateur record, has missed out on being the youngest winner on the European Tour because his fellow-countryman Dale Hayes won the 1971 Spanish Open at 18 years 290 days and Schwartzel will be 19 days older on Sunday.

But the 18-year-old from Johannesburg, also the second-youngest to qualify at European Tour school, is glad to get that record off his back.

He said: "Maybe there was a lot of expectation in me at the beginning and it was perhaps starting to get to me.

"Then I didn't play so well in the last three or four weeks and it seemed like the attention went away a little.

"The pressure went off me and that calmed me down."

Schwartzel enjoyed a memorable day with the putter.

"Yesterday I played good but holed nothing," he said. "Today I played good but made about everything I looked at."

Clarke, looking for his second win in the event in three years, and Price held on to their lead all day, finishing a stroke better than Scot Alastair Forsyth (70) who was joined in third place by Schwartzel at eight under.

Northern Irishman Clarke posted a 68 and Welshman Price a 69.

Tournament favourite Padraig Harrington of Ireland, the world number eight, damaged his chances of going one better after finishing joint second last year, with a poor putting day.

He did sink one telling putt, though, in his second 73, at the last where he holed a 20-footer from off the green to make the cut right on the 146 mark.

Colin Montgomerie lies four shots off the pace after an extraordinary start in which he did not have a par until the eighth, starting bogey, double-bogey, birdie, birdie, bogey, birdie, birdie, on his way to a 71.

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