Belgium’s big-hittingn Nicolas Colsaerts bounced back from last week’s Bulgarian disappointed and burst up the Burma Road leader board on day two of the BMW PGA Championship at a rain-sodden Wentworth.

Colsaerts added a two under par 70 to his opening round 72 to be lying just four strokes behind his Medinah winning colleague, Francesco Molinari mid-afternoon in the European Tour’s flagship event.

Colsaerts had been beaten by eventual champion, Graeme McDowell in his defence of last week’s Volvo World Match-Play Championship at Thracian Cliffs along the Black Sea shoreline.

Nicolas Colsaerts in contention at the BMW PGA Championship. (Photo – Fran Caffrey/www.golffile.ie)

However the current World No. 44 ranked player quickly put that behind him to record seven birdies over the two days, and including three birdies over his closing eight holes this morning.

“I thought I played pretty good actually,” he said.  “The conditions are pretty tricky.  It blows quite a lot.  It’s pretty cold.  There’s a couple of very difficult holes out there.  It’s a tough to hold the green.  So if you can get your round started and sort of hold on, make a birdie here and there; but it’s still a struggle.

“This Wentworth course pretty much tests every part of your game. You need to keep it in play.  You need very precise iron shots.  You know, with these new greens, there’s shelves here and there, so if you want to hit it close, you have to be pretty precise.

“And obviously wind reading.  As we all know Wentworth is a pretty difficult place to read the wind, and when it blows this hard, it gets even more difficult.”

While the very affable Brussels-born golfer was wrapped up in water proofs and woollens to fight over the winter-like conditions, he warmed to the knowledge of ending a run of three missed cuts on the famed West Course.

“It’s good to make the cut for once here,” he smiled.

“I missed the cut the last couple years I played here, and it seems like I can play really good on this course but never really get away with it.  So I’m glad I grinded out in pretty difficult conditions.”

And what has been difference?

“I guess just coping with the weather really,” he added.

“When you go out in such conditions, you try to minimise the bad shots and play to plot your way around maybe a little steadier than you would maybe fire at pins and take advantage of some tee shots.  In these conditions, you just try to keep it in play and not make anything stupid really.

“You have to be better self-disciplined because the conditions are pretty hard.  Since the changes, it’s a much more difficult golf course than it used to be, and in these conditions, it’s actually a pretty good test.”