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outh Korean Han Chang-won surprisingly took over the controls by leading Michael Hendry of New Zealand by one stroke after 36 holes, at the 2011 Indonesian Open golf tournament on Friday.

The 19-year-old fired a five-under-par 67 for a two-round, nine-under total score of 135, ousting Hendry who finished the day on 71 in the US$1 million event, which is being held at Damai Indah Golf Course — Pantai Indah Kapuk in North Jakarta until Sunday.

Hendry’s poor play put him into second place in the overall rankings, tying with compatriot Michael Wright, Hideto Tanihara of Japan and Thaworn Wiratchant of Thailand: all ended the day at eight-under, with respective scores of 135.

Han is one of the most promising young prospects, having claimed OneAsia’s Qualifying School tournament by six strokes in January in China.

 “I had a chance to win the Volvo China Open earlier in the year but I played badly. This weekend, I hope I can learn from that experience, try and handle the pressure much better. I am playing well and feel I can shoot some low scores in the last two rounds,” he said.

 Han made six birdies and a bogey to put himself in a strong position to claim the $180,000 winner’s cheque.

 “I holed a lot of putts today once I got a feel for the greens. If I can maintain that feeling I won’t be far away come Sunday,” he added.

 Meanwhile, first round leader Hendry blamed his poor touch on the greens over the unfavorable result. He birdied the 12th and eagled the par-five 13th to take the lead on 10-under.

 “I couldn’t get a feel for the greens and was a bit unsettled at times. I need to work on that. I’m still very much in the hunt and hopefully that will be my only bad run of holes this week,” said Hendry.

Indonesian rising star Rory Hie, 22, went out in a three-over-par 38 and looked to be out of the running until his inspired finish.

 “I never gave up. I always thought I could make some birdies and get back on track,” he added.

 The halfway cut was set at even-par; a total of seven Indonesians — including Jordan Irawan, Andik Mauludin, Nasin Surachman, George Gandranata and Benny Kasiadi — made the cut.

 Indonesia’s young amateur, Jordan, 15, finished a low-scoring day after only gaining one-under to collect a four-under total score of 140, which placed him at 15th in the rankings with 15 others, including last year’s runner-up, Liang Wen Chong of China.

Jordan admitted several mistakes he made during his poor performance, and he admitted he played rather loosely on Friday as opposed to Thursday.

 “Several pins were quite hard in comparison to Thursday’s game. I think that was why I made two bogeys after gaining three birdies at six, eight and 17. I also made the wrong putt at the seventh,” said the 11th grader, who attends Bina Bangsa high school in Bandung, West Java, after the game.

 The Indonesian golfer, who is prepared for the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, said that he would continue to play without burden on Saturday.

 “Hopefully, I could reach a top-10 spot by end of this tournament, or at least top-20,” said the youngster, who credited his best-friend and caddy, Fadhli Soetarsoe, with his overall achievement, especially when making distance-to-pin calculations.