Levet holds on to second place

Thomas Levet survived a skirmish with golf's frequently baffling rule-book to keep his bid for British Open glory firmly on track on Friday.

The Frenchman added a second-round 70 to his first-round 66 around the Royal Troon links to leave him on his own in second place at 6-under at the halfway stage, one behind American Skip Kendall.

But his round could have been blown off course after he was unwittingly mixed up in an infringement of the rules on the first hole after pulling his tee shot into the crowd to the left of the fairway.

When Levet arrived at his ball, marshalls had already started moving the crowd control barriers to clear his way for his shot, in breach of their classification as immovable objects under the rules.

Levet was not aware that the barriers should not have been moved but he escaped a two-stroke penalty because a referee who was standing nearby failed to intervene.

"For me it was just a question of safety," he said. "There were spectators just five yards from the barriers and if I had hit them somebody could have got killed.

"The rules of golf are so strange sometimes that even the referees are mixed up. It's a strange thing to call something you can move an immovable object."

Although it was not until he was playing the 5th hole that Levet received confirmation that he would not be penalized, but the incident clearly did not disturb his concentration because, by that stage, he had picked up two shots to briefly hold the outright lead.

The first birdie came on the second, where he struck a 7-iron to the green and sunk a 30-foot putt. The second came at the long fourth, where he got up and down after depositing his second shot in a greenside bunker.

The only blemish on the Parisian's scorecard came at the 12th where a poor chip from just off the green cost him a bogey-5.

"I was just trying to concentrate on trying to play a good round and not think about the lead, about the Open, just trying to beat the course, hit the fairways, the greens and maybe make some putts," Levet said.

"The pin positions today were very difficult and I knew it would be very hard to get the ball close and that I had to be ready to play a lot of long putts and be very patient."

Levet came into the Open on a high after winning last week's Scottish Open and admitted that he was reaping the benefit of the biggest victory of his career.

"That made me feel very positive for the week and it has helped me relax on the course, because you have this behind you," admitted Levet, who only qualified for the Open courtesy of his victory at Loch Lomond.

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