Miaoli: Thai duo Natipong Srithong and Danthai Boonma and Chang Yi-Keun of South Korea shared the halfway lead at the Yeangder Heritage in Taiwan yesterday.
Natipong and Danthai, who both won their first Asian Tour titles in 2015, carded a 67 and 69 respectively to tie with Chang, who shot a 66, on 138 at the US$300,000 Asian Tour event.
Javi Colomo of Spain charged up the leaderboard with a 67 highlighted by four closing birdies to trail in fourth place on 139.
John Catlin (68) of the US, Rattanon Wannasrichan (70) of Thailand and Keith Horne (68) of South Africa were a further shot back.
With a new putter in the bag, Natipong turned in 33 before adding birdies on holes 16 and 17 to soar up the leaderboard alongside his roommate and close friend Danthai, who produced a second successive 69.
"It has been a while since my putting was this good. I changed to a new putter and I feel more comfortable. Today it was only windy but yesterday it was cold, rain and windy! On this golf course, you need to hit the ball on the fairway to get a chance to score," Natipong said.
"My performance on the Asian Tour last year was not good because my short game was not good. It is slowly improving now so hopefully I can continue to play well. I'm still pursuing my law degree. I missed my final exams last year because of a tournament so I have to complete six subjects this year to graduate."
Danthai said: "I'm happy with my score because the weather is nice but it is still very windy. I like putting on these greens. It is perfect for me because it is almost the same as the greens in Thailand. I want to keep to the same plan because it was tough these two days and my plan worked. I'll continue to do the same for the weekend."