10 July 2004	Saturday	21 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

LOCH LOMOND, July 9: Frenchman Gregory Havret shot a stunning seven-under 64 to go nine-under for the championship and snatch the lead of the Scottish Open here on Friday.

After dropping two shots as he started home, Havret suddenly caught fire, rattling off an eagle and three birdies to put himself one shot clear of England's Ian Poulter, David Howell and joint first-round leader Phillip Price.

Havret knows that this is his last chance to qualify for next week's British Open. The top finisher here this week who has not already qualified gets a spot for Troon. With already one European Tour win to his name, the 2001 Italian Open, Havret has had three top ten finishes this year and says his swing has greatly improved after working on it in the winter.

But it was his putting that gave him the second round lead. Poulter put himself firmly in contention for the weekend when he carded a bogey-free four-under 67. It put the Englishman at eight-under for the tournament and tied with Howell and Price. But despite being on the leader board, the 28-year-old Poulter was ruing a string of missed chances to be even further under par. Howell surprised even himself with his second round seven-under 64.

He complained he was 'shattered' when he arrived at the course this morning after a 5.30am alarm call. But after a steady one-under 34 for the outward nine, Howell, still looking for a second European Tour win after his 1999 success in Dubai, went on a birdie blitz, coming home in a stunning six-under 30.

Denmark's Thomas Bjorn, who admitted earlier in the week that he was fighting 'the demons' as he tried to refind his form, moved well up the leader board when he added a four-under 67 to his opening three-under 68.

LEADING SECOND ROUND SCORES:

133 Gregory Havret 69 64

134 David Howell 70 64, Ian Poulter 67 67, Phillip Price 65 69

135 Thomas Bjorn 68 67, Christian Cevaer 67 68, Kenneth Ferrie 67 68, Peter Hedblom 67 68, Tom Lehman 67 68, Marcus Fraser 67 68, Tetsuji Hiratsuka 70 65, Roger Chapman 69 66

136 Nicolas Colsaerts 68 68, Peter Lonard 69 67

137 Michael Campbell 70 67, Stephen Gallacher 68 69, Tim Petrovic 71 66, Eduardo Romero 65 72, Graeme McDowell 72 65, Colin Montgomerie 69 68, Mark Roe 67 70, Thomas Levet 70 67, Wade Ormsby 71 66

138 Maarten Lafeber 69 69, Miguel Angel Martin 70 68, Angel Cabrera 74 64, Andrew Coltart 70 68, Ernie Els 70 68, Martin Maritz 75 63, Lee Westwood 71 67, Philip Golding 67 71

Coceres sets pace

SILVIS (Illinois): Argentina's Jose Coceres set a blistering pace in the John Deere Classic on Thursday, shooting a nine-under-par 62 to forge a one-shot opening round lead. Coceres was in the clubhouse well before Vaughn Taylor posted an eight-under 63 to stand alone in second just behind the leader at the end of the first day's play.

LEADING FIRST ROUND SCORES:

62 Jose Coceres

63 Vaughn Taylor

64 Greg Chalmers, Daniel Chopra

65 Ted Purdy

66 John Rollins, Aaron Barber, Joe Durant, John E Morgan

67 J.L. Lewis, Kevin Sutherland, Todd Hamilton, Jonathan Byrd, Robert Gamez, Jay Haas, Chris Smith, Jim McGovern, Jason Bohn

68 Olin Browne, Jim Gallagher Jr, Scott Hoch, Nick Price, Tom Pernice Jr, Mark Hensby, Casey Wittenberg, Hirofumi Miyase, Kevin Muncrief, Roger Tambellini, Wes Short Jr, Carl Paulson, J.J. Henry, Richard S.Johnson, Len Mattiace, Kirk Triplett, Steve Pate, Jason Dufner, Mark Wilson, Hunter Mahan, Lucas Glover

69 Vijay Singh

70 Geoff Ogilvy, Shigeki Maruyama, John Senden, Carlos Franco, Mathias Gronberg, Kevin Na. -Agencies