Kimsey claims Le Vaudreuil lead

Tournament: Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge
Venue: Golf PGA France du Vaudreuil, Le Vaudreuil, France
Hashtag: #LeVaudreuilGolfChallenge

Round two report:

Nathan Kimsey will take a two-stroke lead into the weekend of the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge after a six under par 66 put him in pole position at the halfway stage.

The Englishman set the target at ten under early in the day and was left to watch on as his competitors were unable to catch him, with Denmark’s Peter Launer Baek, Frenchman Jeong weon Ko and Scotland’s Craig Ross his nearest challengers on eight under par.

The 29-year-old has been trending in the right direction recently, with a tie for tenth place in last week’s Italian Challenge Open following his tie for 13th at the Kaskáda Golf Challenge prior to that, and he is now hoping to put himself firmly in contention at Golf PGA France du Vaudreuil this weekend.

“I’m pretty pleased,” he said. “I got off to a fairly slow start, same as yesterday really, but I managed to kick on and make a few birdies and get it going. It was nice to finish with six under.

“When you play late-early, you feel like if you can go and add to what you had yesterday you can see yourself up there on the leaderboard early in the day and set a target. It’s nice to play well again today.

“It’s always nice playing when you’ve got a chance of winning. I’ve had a few weeks where I’ve been up there over the last month or so, so I’m used to it but hopefully we can go a bit better than the last few times.”

Kimsey highlighted both his driving and putting as key to his six under second round, with the latter coming after spending time with countryman Steven Tiley on the putting green during the practice days with the 2019 winner of the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge looking to turn his hand to coaching.

“I’ve been driving it well lately, so I’ve been trying to take advantage of that and be quite aggressive off the tees. I’m trying to give myself as many wedges as I can to give myself chances and hopefully make a few putts.

“I was a bit disappointed with the wedge shot on the seventh because I flared it right but I got up there, had a good read on it and it was pretty straight all the way. I tried to give it a good roll and these greens are nice and quick so from 20-odd feet you feel like you just have to get it rolling and luckily it managed to drop in.”

Five players share fifth place on seven under par including in-form Irishman Ruadhri McGee and French duo Ugo Coussaud and Robin Sciot-Siegrist, who are looking to book their place in the Cazoo Open de France as the leading Frenchman on the French Challenge Order of Merit.

The cut fell at one under par, with 61 players surviving to compete over the weekend.

Ross rises to the top in Le Vaudreuil

Round one report

Craig Ross will take a one-stroke lead into the second day of the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge after he posted a seven under par opening round of 65 at Golf PGA France du Vaudreuil.

The Scotsman carded eight birdies and one bogey to move one-shot clear of Englishman Matthew Baldwin and France's Jérôme Lando Casanova, who share second place on six under par.

The 29-year-old was left to rue a missed par putt on the last which would have extended his advantage to two, but is nonetheless happy with his opening effort.

"I played really solid today," he said. "I got off to a steady start and then got the luck I needed on the sixth hole where I pulled my drive, but it came back off a tree and I managed to make par.

"I went on a nice run after that and I was a bit unfortunate to bogey the last but overall I'm pretty happy with seven under on the first day."

Ross believes Golf PGA France du Vaudreuil is a layout well-suited to him due to the strength of his long game, however he also had to rely on his delicate touch around the greens.

"You have to drive the ball well round here," he said. "I'm usually a good driver of the ball so this course definitely suits my eye, and I was very solid from tee to green. My short game was good today too and I actually chipped in twice from around the greens.

"I enjoy playing in France because it's usually pretty windy and that suits my game due to my low ball flight."

England's Marco Penge and Frenchmen Benjamin Kedochim, Grégory Bourdy and Mathieu Decottignies-Lafon share fourth place on five under par, while seven players share eighth on four under, including Belgium's Kristof Ulenaers and Spaniard Alejandro Del Rey.

The second round of the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge will begin at 8:00am local time, with Ross teeing it up alongside Kedochim and South African Jacques Blaauw at 8:10am.