Robert-Jan Derksen of the Netherlands stayed on course to win the €2.1 million Ballantine’s Championship by taking the second round lead on Friday.    

Derksen posted a three-under-par 69 for a two day total of seven-under-par 137 at the Pinx Golf Club to take a two shot lead over Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee and Korea’s Kang Wook-soon who finished their day on 137.

Joint overnight leader Mark Brown of New Zealand had to settle for a share of fourth place with Italy’s Alessandro Tadini and Spain’s Pablio Martin after four uncharacteristic bogeys in his last five holes saw him lose the grip on his lead.

Derksen, who started on the back-nine, got off strongly with an opening birdie. He followed that up with another two on the 15th and 17th before making the turn in 33.

The Dutchman then had to endure a roller-coaster ride in his inward-nine where he mixed three birdies against a single bogey and double bogey in the wind-swept day.

“It was a difficult day.  It didn’t start too difficult.  I would say the first eight holes were okay.  It wasn’t that windy.  But then it picked up from the 18th till my ninth.  It was tough,” said Derksen.

“I guess it’s difficult for everybody.  But to be in the lead after two days, or at least close to the lead or whatever happens, it’s always a good starting point,” added Derksen.

Thongchai who took advantage of the benign weather conditions in the first round had to contend with Jeju’s famous winds that threatened to derail his chances of securing his 12th win on the Asian Tour too.

“It was a very difficult day as compared to yesterday when the winds were not very strong. I think especially for the last seven holes, it made it very difficult for us to play the course,” said Thongchai.

“The greens are a bit firm making it difficult to control the ball. I hope it gets better tomorrow” added Thongchai.

Kang, one of Korea’s most decorated players also had to battle the strong winds to keep himself in contention at the Ballantine’s Championship which is the first Asian Tour event in Korea this season to be sanctioned by the Asian Tour, European Tour and Korean PGA.

“I think my shots were very good today, and I got the ball very close to the pin, but unfortunately because of the very strong winds, I missed several birdie opportunities,” said Kang. 

Kang made a name for himself in Asia by winning two Order of Merit titles in 1996 and 1998 and also became the first player in the Asian Tour’s history to surpass US$500,000 in career earnings.