Dubai title contender Casey Jarvis holds a share of the lead at the halfway point in the Genesis Championship, with Open champion Ryan Fox also in contention.
South African Jarvis, who can move past Patrick Reed and Rory McIlroy into second place in the season rankings with a win, posted a second-round 67 to share first place with Antoine Rozner at Woo Jeong Hills Country Club.
Jarvis – already a two-time winner on the DP World Tour this season – sits at 10 under with Rozner, who posted a six-under 65, while Golf of the Year Champion Fox is three shots back in a share of third.
Fox sits sixth in the Dubai Race Rankings and looks set to close with leader Eugenio Chacarra, with the New Zealander heading into the weekend seven under with Martin Couvra, Filippo Celli and KPGA Order of Merit leader Sanghun Shin.
Chacarra recovered from an opening-round 72 to post a five-under 66 to move into the top 15, within six of the lead at the halfway mark, while Spain’s Pablo LarrazĆ”bal failed to be among those to lose their DP World Tour status.
DP World Tour stalwarts suffer heartbreak
Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat withdrew due to injury, meaning he will miss out on retaining Category 10 status on the DP World Tour next season.
LarrazƔbal, who battled to continue fighting at the Qualifying School next month, lost out along with Sebastian Soderberg, who entered the week ranked 101st and is currently projected to drop to 103rd.
“It’s been a difficult 20 months, maybe what changed it all was dropping the 10th win in Bahrain last year at the start of the season, not scoring the goal in the last win, it was very difficult,” Larrazabal said. āIt took me a while to get over it.
“This year has been difficult. Not having my 100 percent card at the beginning of the season, he had some family problems.”
Jason Scrivener, Zander Lombard and England’s Ross Fisher were among others who failed to cut and extend their seasons, while Sean Crocker reached the weekend to keep alive his hopes of moving from 103rd to the top 100 in the rankings.
Jarvis and Rozner share the leadership of Korea
Starting on the 10th, Rozner rolled in a 44-foot birdie putt at the 13th before adding further birdies on the 16th and 18th to make the turn in 33, then picked up three more birdies during a bogey-free round.
“It would be a nice bonus to play the Play-Offs (he’s currently out of the qualification places), but in the position I’m in, I have to focus on winning the tournament,” Rozner said.
Overnight leader Jarvis was also flawless during his second round, posting four birdies in a six-hole stretch around the turn to join the Frenchman three clear of the field.
“I felt like I was really solid,” Jarvis said. āI didn’t take the flags too much and I just hit it in the middle of the greens and then I tried to hit the long shots.
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