UAE National Joshua Grenville-Wood has made it safely through to the weekend on the Challenge Tour’s Hainan Open, despite not carrying on the form he showed in yesterday’s bogey-free 66.
“Yeah, not what I was hoping for,” he told Golf Digest. “I wasn’t feeling too good this morning and it showed a bit today.”
Starting on the 10th at Sanya Luhuitou Golf Club, the Dubai resident got his second round off to not the best of starts with two dropped shots in his opening three holes, despite making those shots back immediately on the 13th and 14th.
“It was a poor tee shot on 10. I was struggling with pull draws all day which didn’t help.
“It took me a good 10 holes to start hitting the ball properly.”
After making the turn at two-over-par, after a double bogey six on the par four 17th hole, Joshua’s hard work of three birdies coming home was rubbed out with two additional bogeys. Eventually, he signed for a one-over-par 73, putting him at five-under-par total for the tournament.
“It was a real grind all day and I didn’t get many breaks.”
Currently ranked 59th on the Challenge Tour’s Road to Mallorca Rankings, the 26-year-old will be looking for a more positive weekend before next week’s Hangzhou Open, to move up the needed 14 spots on the order of merit into the top 45 to make the final event of the season in Mallorca giving him one final chance of gaining a DP World Tour card.
“I’m just going out there tomorrow and play darts. Attack as many flags as I can and see what happens.
“I need a low one tomorrow to get back into contention so going to give it a go. I’ve got nothing to lose.”
Leading after 36-holes on Hainan Island are the trio of South Africa’s JC Ritchie, Swede Niklas Lemke and Finland’s Oliver Lindell who are all on 12-under-par.
Former Dubai resident, Christofer Rahm, sits alongside Joshua at five-under-par, while Trump International Dubai member Garrick Porteous missed the cut.
Main Image: Ross Kinnaird/GettyImages
