A smile is never far from the face of Taiwanese Chan Yih-shin and his positive attitude paid off yesterday as he shot a second-round 67 to take a one-shot lead at the halfway mark of the Macau Open.
Yesterday the 35-year-old's smiles were wider than ever after grabbing sole ownership of the lead at the US$750,000 tournament.
'Well, I'm leading at the moment so that is good reason for me to keep smiling. I think anyone would be smiling if they were in my position too,' said Chan after taking a one-shot lead from Finn Joonas Granberg.
Helped by an eagle on the par-five 502-yard second hole at the Macau Golf and Country Club - his second in as many days having holed for an eagle at the 18th hole in the first round - Chan returned home early with the clubhouse lead in his pocket.
At the end of the day he was on top of the leaderboard for the second successive day. Chan had shared the honours on the opening day with his five-under-par 66 tying him in first place alongside American Anthony Kang, Englishman Nick Redfern and Swede Rikard Karlberg. But he left them behind thanks to an eagle midway through his back nine.
'I used a seven iron from 198 yards and it landed nine feet from the pin,' smiled Chan happily. He traded four birdies with two bogeys to finish four under for the day and aggregate nine-under 133.
'I haven't played well this year, and been really struggling with my putting. But my confidence is back after shooting some amazing shots in the last two days,' said Chan who has only one career title on the Asian Tour.