David Howell threatened the European Tour record books as he raced to the second-round lead in China's TCL Classic on Friday (17-03-06).

　　The English ace was in unstoppable form as he shot a nine-under-par 63 to go with his first-round 64 for a total of 17-under 127.

　　That was just one stroke shy of the European Tour record for 36 holes set by Ernie Els at the Heineken Classic in Melbourne two years ago.

　　Howell also made 11 birdies - one short of the record held by four players - on another day of low scoring at Yalong Bay Golf Club in Sanya on the southern Chinese island of Hainan.

　　"I played nicely and had a lot of fun out there," said Howell, who leads by two shots from Australia's Andrew Buckle.

　　Howell, starting from the 10th tee, reached the turn in six-under and admitted to having thoughts of a 59.

　　"I did start to think about it, a bit too early probably," he said. "With three holes to go I had a reachable par four and eight and nine are both birdie holes, so if I could have finished two, three, four it was on.

　　"But I'd dropped a shot on the third [his 12th hole] and you're going to struggle to shoot a 59 with a dropped shot. But I was happy to be in the vicinity."

　　Howell - the current European No.1 - could have gone even lower, but dropped a shot on his penultimate hole and missed a four-foot birdie putt on the last.

　　"I'm delighted, really. My caddie just gave me a telling off for being a little disappointed to finish five, five, but I've just had my joint best score and my best score two days in a row, so I've got to be happy."

　　Buckle also enjoyed a productive day at the US$1 million TCL Classic, which is co-sanctioned by the European and Asian Tours and promoted by Parallel Media Asia.

　　The Australian made seven birdies against a lone bogey for a 66 to go with his first-round 63.

　　"I played really well yesterday and again today. There are a lot of birdie chances out there and you've just got to attack the pin," he said.

　　Buckle finished runner-up to England's Simon Dyson in the Indonesia Open two weeks ago and said he had learned from that experience.

　　"It gives you that little extra confidence knowing you can be in with a chance to win a tournament," he said.

　　"Simon played very well that week. He didn't make any mistakes and that's what you have to do. Especially out here, if you make a bogey you're going to go backwards. So you have to try not to make any mistakes."

　　A quartet of golfers were four shots behind Howell on 13-under. One of those was American Edward Loar, the first-round co-leader, who shot a 69 on Friday.

　　He was level with Argentinians Daniel Vancsik (65) and Ariel Canete (66) and South Africa's Warren Abery (68).

　　China's Liang Wen Chong, who shared the first-round lead with Loar at 10-under, fell away on Friday, a two-over 74 all but ending his hopes of a home victory.

　　Young English star Nick Dougherty was refusing to rule out his chances after a 67 left him on 11-under - six shots behind Howell.

　　"I'm struggling to read the greens and lacking a bit of confidence as well, but if I can relax over the weekend you never know. It will take some really good golf to catch David," he said.

　　Defending champion Paul Casey of England rued as succession of missed putts in a 68 that left him level with Dougherty.

　　"I had two putts which horseshoed from three feet and a couple of other short putts which missed," he said. "I'm very disappointed."

　　Paul McGinley shot a 65 to reach 10-under. "I'm seven shots back and that's going to be very difficult to make up on this course," said the Irishman.

　　"If the course was tougher then it would be reasonable, but the way David's playing, I can't see him shooting a low score.. I think I'm going to have to shoot two 62s to catch him."

　　On another day of spectacular scoring at Yalong Bay, fans were treated to two golfers hitting a hole-in-one just 10 minutes apart.

　　South Africa's Hendrik Buhrmann aced the 196-yard par-three third with a five-iron and Christian Nilsson of Sweden followed suit with a seven-iron at the 172-yard par-three 11th.

　　ENDS