Andy DevaneyA week after winning in Sanya, Lars van der Vight has found an effective way to deal with the pressure of following up a victory. He has gone out and shot the lowest round ever recorded at Hangzhou West Lake Golf Club.
Ten birdies, no bogeys and a course-record 62 carried the Dutchman to 13 under par at the halfway stage of the Hangzhou Open on Friday. After opening with a 69, he has suddenly become the player everybody else must catch.
There is, admittedly, a complication. His lead is just one stroke.
Dane Kristian Hjort Bressum is close enough to make the weekend uncomfortable, while several more contenders remain within striking distance. For now, though, nobody has matched Van der Vight’s combination of precision and scoring.
And judging by his own assessment, he hardly appeared to break a sweat.
Ten birdies, one missed green and a record 62
Van der Vight began his second round on the tenth tee, with Thursday’s three-under-par 69 having left him work to do.
He started collecting birdies at the 11th and 12th before adding another at the 15th. Three consecutive gains across the turn, at the 17th, 18th and first, transformed a promising round into something considerably more interesting.
Four further birdies across his remaining eight holes completed the 62.
The arithmetic is impressive enough. The detail behind it is arguably more revealing.
Van der Vight reported missing just one green throughout the round, a remarkable level of consistency on a course he believes demands something from every part of a golfer’s game.
His recent iron play has supplied the opportunities, while his putter has been doing a particularly agreeable job of converting them.
There is no great mystery to making birdies when those two departments work together. Finding that combination for ten of them in a single round is another matter.
Van der Vight was complimentary about the challenge presented by the venue.
“It’s a great golf course. I feel like it tests all 14 clubs in your bag and you need to be good in all aspects of the game to shoot a good score round here.”
Evidently, he had all 14 behaving themselves.
Hainan Open victory has changed the equation
Friday’s performance is particularly significant because of what happened the previous week.
Van der Vight arrived in Hangzhou having secured his second victory of the season at the Hainan Open in Sanya, a result that lifted him to sixth in the Road to Mallorca Rankings.
He has now produced a bogey-free round containing ten birdies for the second consecutive week.
That sort of scoring suggests his recent results are being driven by sustained quality rather than one fortunate afternoon with the putter.
The Dutchman believes his iron play and putting have been central to the improvement. He has also acknowledged that last week’s victory removed some of the pressure he had been carrying.
There is an obvious difference between chasing a result and playing after one has already arrived. Confidence tends to be considerably easier to maintain when the scorecard keeps providing evidence that things are working.
Yet Van der Vight is reluctant to complicate matters by thinking too far ahead.
“We’ll just do our best and we’ll take what this week gives us.”
It is a sensible approach, particularly with another tournament victory suddenly within reach.
Bressum leads the pursuit at the Hangzhou Open
For all the attention surrounding the record round, the leaderboard offers Van der Vight little room for complacency.
Kristian Hjort Bressum signed for a five-under-par 67 to reach 12 under, leaving the Dane just one stroke behind going into the third round.
His compatriot Hamish Brown and Czech golfer Filip Mruzek share third place at 11 under, while English pair Chris Wood and Frank Kennedy are tied at ten under.
That leaves six players separated by only three strokes at the top of the leaderboard. A course record has given Van der Vight the advantage, but it has hardly settled the tournament.
There is also the question of whether anybody can sustain the sort of scoring he has produced over the previous fortnight. Maintaining exceptional form is difficult enough. Doing so while protecting a lead presents a slightly different challenge.
Saturday’s third round begins at 7.20am local time, with Van der Vight scheduled to tee off at 11.19am alongside Bressum and Mruzek.
The Dutchman has already demonstrated what happens when his irons and putter cooperate.
Now comes the rather less forgiving business of defending a lead while everybody else attempts to find the same answers.
