Staff WriterLars Van der Vight moved to the top of the Interwetten Open leaderboard after a superb second-round 62 at Schladming-Dachstein Golf Club, the sort of scorecard that makes a wet Friday in Austria look rather more cheerful than it had any right to be.
The 23-year-old Dutchman reached 12 under par to take a one-shot lead into the weekend, edging ahead of Frenchman Julien Quesne, who produced a 62 of his own to sit at 11 under.
Christian Braeunig, the first-round leader and Van der Vight’s playing partner, was overtaken as the Dutchman filled his card with birdies and the occasional reminder that golf is still golf.
Van der Vight makes the rain work for him
Some players see steady rain and begin mentally negotiating with the nearest fireplace. Van der Vight, apparently, sees home comforts.
He made eight birdies on Friday, five of them arriving in his opening seven holes. That is less a start than a polite mugging of the front nine. A bogey at the ninth briefly threatened to spoil the symmetry, but he picked up three more shots after the turn to move into pole position at the halfway stage of the HotelPlanner Tour event.
“It was good,” he said. “Obviously it was raining all day, but it wasn’t a lot of rain it was just persistent. I guess I feel right at home in the rain.
“Tee to green I’ve been really good. I’ve hit a lot of fairways and hit a lot of greens the past couple of days.
“I had no idea I had seven threes on the front nine; that doesn’t happen often.”
No, it does not. Seven threes on a front nine is the kind of arithmetic golfers tend to recount with the suspicious calm of someone who has just found a tenner in an old rain jacket.
A young Dutchman growing into the step up
Van der Vight is in his first full season on the HotelPlanner Tour, having earned his place by winning the Order of Merit on the Pro Golf Tour. That route now feeds into the wider Road to Mallorca picture, and he arrived in Austria sitting 95th in the rankings.
There is nothing especially glamorous about learning your trade through airports, weather delays, unfamiliar grasses and the occasional hotel breakfast that looks like it has lost a bet. But Van der Vight appears to be taking the step up with a useful blend of curiosity and composure.
“I’ve enjoyed it,” he added. “I’ve been to a lot of far away places like South Africa and India. It’s more travel but it’s fun to see some cool places.
“The course this week is pretty straightforward so it’s not too hard to adapt this week. There are some courses you want to play twice in the practice round but here once was enough.”
That last line says plenty. There are courses that need decoding like a tax return. Schladming-Dachstein, at least in Van der Vight’s telling, has offered him a cleaner equation: hit fairways, hit greens, accept the rain, and keep making threes until someone asks whether the card has been printed correctly.
Pro Golf Tour success gives him belief
Van der Vight has already shown he can finish the job. He won twice on the Pro Golf Tour on his way to topping the rankings, and while winning at one level never guarantees the next, it does give a player something invaluable: evidence.
Not hope. Not theory. Evidence.
“I feel like I can win on any level. If you can close out and win a tournament it’s always good experience to have.”
That is not swagger, exactly. More a young player noting, quite reasonably, that the door is there and he has opened similar ones before.
Quesne keeps the pressure on
Van der Vight will not have the weekend to himself. Julien Quesne matched his second-round 62 to reach 11 under par, keeping the leader well within arm’s length before Saturday’s third round.
Behind them, a strong chasing group sits at nine under par. English trio Ryan Brooks, David Horsey and Bradley Bawden are joined by Peru’s Julian Perico and German pair Philipp Katich and Maximilian Kieffer. That is a congested enough pack to make the final 36 holes rather lively, particularly if the weather continues to behave like a damp committee chairman.
For Van der Vight, the equation is simple but not easy. The halfway lead is useful. It is not a trophy. The HotelPlanner Tour rarely hands out anything early, apart from awkward lies and character-building travel schedules.
Interwetten Open weekend tee times set up a proper scrap
Round three of the Interwetten Open begins at 8.05 am local time, with Van der Vight playing alongside Quesne and Ryan Brooks at 12.00.
That final group has a neat shape to it: the leader, the nearest challenger and one of the men in the pack trying to turn Saturday into something uncomfortable for both of them.
Van der Vight has already shown he can handle the rain, the travel and the jump in level. Now comes the more interesting test: sleeping on a lead, walking back into the noise, and seeing whether Friday’s fluency can survive the weekend squeeze.
For now, he has the Interwetten Open exactly where every golfer wants a tournament at halfway — just in front of him, waiting to be won.
