After rounds of 69 and 73, however, the 35-year-old from Poole is two under par and only four behind French leader Michael Lorenzo-Vera in the £2million tournament.

Fourteen years ago James was British amateur champion at the same time as Tiger Woods was the American title holder.

James - so little known that a radio commentator even called him "James Lee" during the day - had a chance to join Lorenzo-Vera in the lead when he stood over an eagle putt on the long 18th, his ninth.

But after two-putting for birdie he then slipped back with bogeys on the first, fifth and ninth. It will probably be a mental battle more than anything for him over the closing 36 holes.

There are some big names around him on the leaderboard, but Lorenzo-Vera is not one of them.

The 23-year-old from Biarritz is in his rookie season after winning last year's Challenge Tour - and he admits the 7,453-yard course is the toughest he has seen in his life.

After his first sight of it he admitted he thought: "How am I going to do that?"

But so far he has done it very well, adding a 70 to his opening 68 for a halfway total of 138.

He took over at the top from Indian Jeev Milkha Singh and Australian Richard Green, who after starting with rounds of 66 could manage only 76 and 74 respectively.