French 'roomies' lead the Colsaerts chase

Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium hits a fairway shot at the 9th hole of the second round during the BMW Shanghai Masters golf tournament at the Lake Malaren Golf Club in Shanghai. (Photo: AFP/Johannes Eisele)

SHANGHAI: Nicolas Colsaerts boomed out a 64 to take the lead in the BMW Masters Friday (Oct 31), but it will be two French room-mates who will mount an assault on the Belgian in Saturday's third round.

Alexander Levy is one shot behind Colsaerts on 13-under par after he followed his opening 65 with a solid 66 over the par-72 Lake Malaren layout. Romain Wattel - who is sharing a room in Shanghai with long-time friend Levy - shot 67 on Friday to be third on 12-under 132.

The three men will go out in the final group on Saturday, a prospect Levy is relishing. "It will be fun," Levy told reporters Friday. "We are very good friends. I think it's good tomorrow to play together. I hope we can also play the final day together."

Levy, who earlier this month pipped Colsaerts to the title at the rain-shortened Portugal Masters, refuted any suggestion the two might get sick of the sight of each other, playing golf all day and then sharing a room all night.

"No, I've known Romain since I was 15. He had a few problems the last few weeks and he asked me if I could share with him," Levy said. "I am a good friend with him and I think it's nice to stay with him. "I'm happy to see his name on the leaderboard because I'm feeling good the last few weeks. I think I've helped him to play good too."

Wattel was clearly enjoying his week so far. "It's been great fun," he told AFP. "I'm enjoying seeing both our names at the top of the leaderboard."

Meanwhile Colsaerts was also looking forward to locking horns once more with Levy in a battle of the big-hitters, though he stopped short of saying he was looking for revenge for Portugal.

"Payback?" Colsaerts laughed. "No, Alex's been playing well for a while. He's had a really good season. "You know, I felt like I've been in the zone a couple of times lately. So it's pretty nice when you can get it going like this. And I've been playing quite well for the last couple of months."