Andrew Johnston fired his lowest round on the DP World Tour in almost seven years to take a one-shot lead into the weekend of the Austrian Alpine Open presented by Kitzbühel Tirol.
Related:: Yanhan Zhou goes low to lead in sylvan Austria
The Englishman posted an eight under par second round of 62 – his lowest score since the Scottish Open in 2019 – to move to 11 under par at Golfclub Kitzbühel-Schwarzsee-Reith, one ahead of Scotland’s Calum Hill, Spaniard Rafa Cabrera Bello and Kota Kaneko of Japan.
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Johnston, affectionately known as Beef, is making his tenth start on the DP World Tour this season on a medical exemption, after being limited to just 17 appearances across the last three years.
Last year, it was revealed Johnston had a complete ligament tear and a partial tear in two other tendons in his thumb after a series of earlier misdiagnoses. The 37-year-old is now looking to pick up his first DP World Tour title for over a decade, with his maiden victory coming at the 2016 Real Club Valderrama Open de España.
Johnston birdied the 12th before a hat-trick of gains from the 15th saw him reach seven under for his opening nine holes on Friday.
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At that stage, he was still a shot adrift of first-round leader Yanhan Zhou, but birdies at the first and second, before further gains on the sixth and ninth, saw him set the clubhouse target.
Hill overtook Johnston with a brilliant front nine of 29, but the Scot was unable to maintain his electric start, with dropped shots at two of his final three holes on the tougher back nine saw him fall into a tie for second at ten under.
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Zhou of China, the DP World Tour’s youngest member this season, is in a six-way share of fifth place after a level par 70, with last year’s runner-up Marcel Schneider, Brandon Robinson Thompson, Tobias Jonsson and French pair Alexander Levy and Tom Vaillant at eight under.
Austrian duo Sepp Straka and Max Steinlechner continue to lead the home charge and are both at seven under, four back of the lead.
Player Quotes
Andrew Johnston: Look, it’s hard to describe. Just hit a lot of good shots. The putter got a bit hot, which I’ve been trying to do now for six months. Yeah, you know, putts start dropping. It’s a good day.
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I think with the injury I looked at stuff that I could personally sort of be better and I started going back into the gym and I felt really compressed and body everywhere and there’s a nice little coffee shop in Perth next door and there’s a yoga place next door and I was like, do you know what, I’m just going to wander in and have a look in, ask a few questions and I found this yoga teacher and she has been brilliant. I just think my body’s been a lot more flexible, day-to-day I’m feeling better, just day-to-day and moving it and when I come back, I hadn’t seen Goughy (Jamie Gough) for a year. He just said ‘you’re moving so much better and the club’s in such a better position’ and I think it’s a big part to do with that.
We’re getting there. But you should see the yardage book and stuff. There’s like four or five numbers every time because obviously you’ve got the normal number, then adjustments, front pin and any cover.
There’s still a lot going on and you still sort of have to take that extra ten, 15 seconds just to double check and make sure we’ve got the right yardage because it’s one of these mountain courses that are fiddly, and if you start getting the wrong yardages and flying greens, you can rack up some scores.
