Golf: Woosnam's putting problem

IAN WOOSNAM defied a wicked swirling wind to move into contention for the Heineken Dutch Open yesterday, but admitted that he is still worried by his putting problems.

The Welshman missed a couple of short putts near the end of his second round at Noordwijk when he was on course to shoot one of only a handful of sub-70 rounds of a difficult scoring day. 'I've just got to have more faith with my putter,' he said.

Woosnam eventually settled for a score of 70 and a two-round total of 141, four behind the Irishman, Ronan Rafferty, who enjoyed the best of the weather in adding a 70 to his opening 67. Rafferty leads by two shots from four players on 139: Carl Mason, Ross Drummond, Denmark's Anders Sorensen and Jose Coceres of Argentina.

Rafferty set his seven-under-par target before the winds began to whip over the course in the afternoon, sending scores soaring and causing grief to the US Masters champion, Bernhard Langer, and the former US PGA winner, John Daly. Daly missed the cut with a 76 to follow his first-round 77 while Langer slipped back with the rare blemishes of a six and a seven in his round of 74.

HEINEKEN DUTCH OPEN (Noordwijk) Leading second-round scores (GB or Irl unless stated): 137 R Rafferty 67 70. 139 C Mason 71 68; R Drummond 69 70; A Sorensen (Den) 70 69; J Coceres (Arg) 69 70. 140 L Janzen (US) 68 72; G Evans 69 71; D A Russell 65 75. 141 J Berendt (Arg) 68 73; S Tinning (Den) 71 70; S Torrance 72 69; I Woosnam 71 70; M Roe 70 71; C Montgomerie 68 73. 142 V Singh (Fiji) 72 70; D Smyth 71 71; M Jiminez (Sp) 68 74; G Brand Jnr 70 72; B Langer (Ger) 68 74; P Eales 68 74; J Parnevik (Swe) 71 71. 143 P Fowler (Aus) 68 75; J van de Velde (Fr) 73 70; G Orr 73 70. 144 A Forsbrand (Swe) 71 73; A Murray 71 73; T Johnstone (Zim) 75 69; P Baker 68 76; E Darcy 70 74; P Walton 72 72; J Woof 70 74; S Ames (Trin) 71 73. 145 M Farry (Fr) 71 74; D J Russell 72 73; W Riley (Aus) 71 74; B Lane 71 74; M Mouland 73 72; G Turner (NZ) 68 77; P-U Johansson (Swe) 70 75; R Goosen (SA) 69 76; J Quiros (Sp) 70 75.