By Steve Scott, golf correspondent

GARY ORR continued to ride his recent form successfully at the Johnnie Walker Championship into a share of second place behind France’s Gregory Havret.

The Scot had a medical exemption for the first few months of the season, but he made enough winnings during that spell to confirm his presence on tour this year, and is seeking to put any question of next year’s rights behind him.

A 69 to share second with Paul Broadhurst, Cristian Cevaer and Robert Rock did very nicely, and as the greens came in for criticism, Orr admitted putting that out of his mind was a big key.

“You’re going to get a few funny ones, it’s very soft after all the rain,” he said.

“I think they’re normally reasonable here, but my short game is where I’ve made the improvement in the last few weeks.”

Orr had top 10 finishes in Sweden and the Netherlands in the last fortnight, and work with coach Adam Hunter on improving his short game has been the key, as well as clinical pilates for keeping the back problem that caused him to require that medical exemption.

“I have to do it a minimum of 20 minutes at the end of each day and it seems to work, and I’ll be doing that probably forever now,” he said.

“It seems to be working, so I’m not going to change.”

Defending champion Marc Warren, another who returned to form in the Netherlands last week, made a solid start with a par 73.

“Five shots behind isn’t much on this course. I showed last year that you can get on a run and make that up,” he said.

“I feel better about my game than I have been for some time, and I’m playing well in what have been tricky, windy conditions the last few weeks, when you need to be sure of your control of the ball.

“The greens are bumpy, but you just have to control the temperament on that one—everyone’s going to get a bad bounce.”

Orr and Warren are safe in terms of playing rights for 2009, but Peter Whiteford gave himself a chance of making up some ground in the order of merit with a fine comeback for a par 73.

The young Fifer double-bogeyed the first and reached the turn in three-over, but he came back strongly with birdies on the short 10th, 14th and the last to come back in 34 and be well positioned for a move on the weekend.

Stephen Gallacher and Tartan Tour players Paul McKechnie and Stephen Gray were the next best Scots on two-over 75s, with Paul Lawrie shooting a three-over 76.