Matt Wallace will take a one-shot lead into the third round of the Volvo China Open after being made to battle in Beijing.

The Moor Park professional started the second round in a tie for a second after a superb seven-under-par 65 yesterday. But after a birdie two at the second had been cancelled out by a six at the fourth, his attempts to build on an eagle three at the eighth for the second consecutive day were thwarted by the conditions.

Wallace told Sky Sports: “It was tough all day. The wind picked up. The scoring was low this morning so I didn’t really know what a good score was when we went out there, so to be two-under after eight and thinking ‘we’re playing quite nice here, we can a couple more on this back nine’, but the wind just stayed up all afternoon and I couldn’t get it close enough.

“It was swirling as well. There was a couple of shots where you think it was going to help and it didn’t. It showed on 16, I hit a great shot and was miles short and left myself a four or five footer for par. It was tough, but I’m pretty happy with a birdie on the last though.”

Following that par on 16, the 28-year-old dropped back to eight-under with a bogey five on the next hole. But a four on the par five 18th moved him back into the lead on nine-under, one shot clear of three players – Nacho Elvira, Jason Scrivener and Sihwan Kim.

Looking ahead to the weekend, the two-time European Tour winner said: “Hopefully the weather will be kind. I’m playing nice golf. To be ahead with the afternoon wind is quite a nice feeling because it was tough out there.

“I’m going to sleep on the lead, which I kind of like doing and we’ll go tomorrow and try and play as well as possible.”

Trying to win from the front at the halfway stage would faze some players, but not Wallace. The Pinner-based professional has gone from wire to wire before and it’s a prospect he enjoys.

“I love leading from start to finish sometimes if I can,” he said. “I did it a few times on the Alps Tour, but we’ve got two rounds of golf to go, we’ve got a long way to go, I’m playing nice stuff so I’m going to keep doing what I do.”

With the halfway cut coming at one-under, Moor Park club-mate Callum Shinkwin has missed out on the final two rounds after following his opening round of 71 with a 74 to finish on one-over.

The Bushey professional played par golf on the opening nine holes, but his challenge was to fade with three bogeys in the first four holes on the back nine before finishing with a birdie on 18.