Danny Chai joins Nick Dougherty in tie for lead

Home favourite Danny Chia carded a five-under par 67 to share the clubhouse lead with overnight leader Nick Dougherty after the second round of the rain-hit Malaysia Open on Friday.

Chia hit six birdies against one bogey to finish the day on 12-under 132. Briton Dougherty, playing in near darkness, birdied the final hole to match the Malaysian’s half-way score at the Kota Permai Golf Club.

Dougherty shot two-under 70, eight strokes off the career-best 10-under-par 62 he scored on Thursday.

Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen shot 68 for a share of third on 11-under-par 133. India’s Jyoti Randhawa was also on 11 under but only completed 16 holes before rain halted play for the day.

Briton Graeme McDowell (68) and Swede Peter Hedblom (68) completed their rounds and were a further stroke behind at 10-under, along with Argentina’s Rafael Echenique, who managed 11 holes.

But the day belonged to Chia, who is only taking part in the tournament because of a sponsor’s invite.

“It has always been one of my dreams to win the Malaysian Open,” Chia told reporters. “Every year it gets tougher and tougher as it is now jointly sanctioned. But it’s made me more excited to see my name on the leaderboard.”

The Malaysian Open is co-sanctioned by the European Tour and Asian Tour.

Dougherty was happy with his performance despite losing his outright lead.

“It is still all right to shoot two under par,” he said. “I am not too disappointed and quite pleased with the way I responded to such an exciting round yesterday. It is easy to stall and I felt I kept going forward.”

Play will start earlier on Saturday with 49 players yet to finish the second round.

Clubhouse Scores