Paul Lawrie will be hoping a rules mistake in marking his ball during the second round will not spoil his hope of capturing the Euro 316,000 Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in Doha.

Lawrie ended the round with a five under par 67 to move to a one stroke lead on eight under par in an event reduced to three rounds due to strong winds on day two.

The Scot, who captured the 1999 Qatar Masters, had marked his ball on the 10th green but in returning the ball to the putting surface his ball slipped from his hand and onto his 10 pence coin marker.

But with Lawrie and none of his playing parnters, caddies, spectators or TV cameramen witnessing whether his coin moved, Lawrie had little option under the Rules of Golf but to call a one-stroke penalty on himself.

Despite a clumsy one stroke penalty Paul Lawrie leads with a round to play in Qatar.

“I wasn’t 100% sure and nobody else saw it and at the time I was looking at the hole, so you just have to take the one stroke penalty and kick on,” said Lawrie.

“It just one of these freak, stupid rules.

“There is so many rules like that and it’s impossible to get the rules perfect because it so many but it’s one of those where, even if the coin moved, I am not trying to gain an advantage.

“It was just an accident and it was like (Ian) Poulter in Dubai the year before last.  It’s just one of those many rules that could do with changing a bit.

“Nobody purposely throws a ball on a coin to knock it closer to the hole but it happens and there’s not much you can do.”

Lawrie then revealed it is the second week in succession he’s let his ball drop onto his 10 pence marker.

Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts (68) is in secod place on seven under par while three players – Argentina’s Ricardo Gonzalez (67) and Sweden’s Peter Hanson (69) are tied in third place at six under par.