Malacca: England’s Peter Richardson took advantage of the near perfect conditions to post a seven-under-par 65 to open a five-shot halfway lead at the Professional Golf of Malaysia (PGM) ADT Masters.

The 27-year-old mixed his card with eight birdies and one bogey for a two-day total of 12-under-par 132 to lead two-time PGM Tour winner Md Rashid Ismail, who returned with a 70 at the A’Famosa Golf Resort in Malacca.

Japan’s Go Nakauchi and Korea’s Kim Ji-hoon signed for matching 139s to take a share of third place while the burgeoning domestic tour’s current Order of Merit leader R. Nachimuthu improved to equal fifth in the RM180,000 (appox US$60,000) Asian Development Tour (ADT) co-sanctioned event alongside Japan’s Kenichi Sawada and first round co-leader Hanafiah Jamil (73) with a round of three-under 69.

Richardson, who took part in the Asian Tour Qualifying School earlier in the year but failed to make the cut, is playing in his third ADT event this season and is hoping for a grandstand finish so that he can realise his dream of playing on the Asian Tour.

“Every opportunity that I get to play in Asia brings me closer to my dream of playing on the Asian Tour. Everything is so well organised that I just have to focus on doing my best,” said Richardson, who plies his trade in the Middle East.

“Today was almost a perfect day for me. I didn’t make too many mistakes and everything went my way. I’m hoping that this will continue through the weekend,” he added.

Meanwhile Rashid, who took a share of the opening round lead, bemoaned his putting which he felt had let him down. However, the Malaysian is confident that he can still mount a serious challenge for the title this week.

“I didn’t putt as well as I did as compared to yesterday. I missed a lot of birdie chances especially in my back-nine,” said the xx-year-old. “I still have a good chance as anything can happen. I’ll try to overcome my five-shot deficit tomorrow,” added Rashid.

A total of 27 Malaysian progress to the weekend rounds with the halfway cut arriving at six-over 150.

Leading second round scores
132 – Peter Richardson (ENG) 67-65
137 – Md Rashid Ismail (MAS) 67-70
139 – Go Nakauchi (JPN) 70-69, Kim Ji-hoon (KOR) 68-71
140 -Kenichi Sawada (JPN) 72-68, R. Nachimuthu ( MAS) 71-69, Hanafiah Jamil (MAS) 67-73
141 – Airil Rizman Zahari (71-70), Mitchell Slorach (SIN) 72-69, Akhmal Tarmizee 70-71, Konstantin Liu (GER) 71-70