SIMON DYSON insisted his Open chances were far from finished despite seeing his challenge dented by a calamitous closing few holes at Royal St George’s.

The Malton & Norton GC star led the Sandwich field outright following a sensational start to his second round that brought birdies at the opening three holes.

That, following a two-under-par opening round of 68, had surged him to the summit but he was to slip away on the back nine with bogeys at 13 and 15, and a double bogey six at 17, leaving him nursing a second round of 72 which placed him four shots off the early half-way clubhouse leaders.

But 33-year-old Dyson reckoned he did not hit a bad shot, blaming his stutter on “poor decisions”, and said anything could happen over the final two days.

“It was lovely to see your name at the top of the leaderboard,” he said. “It was great. If you don’t get any enjoyment from that then you are in the wrong game. I couldn’t make any birdies after that. And then it started to turn.

“I am four behind. We will see. We have had the worst of the weather over the last couple of days so hopefully it will change. It’s the one tournament everyone wants to win. I am only four behind and anything can happen if the weather comes in. We will see.”

After his brilliant beginning, Dyson bogeyed the fourth. He followed his dropped shot, however, with eight straight pars.

Turning in 33, the four-time European Tour winner was scrambling successfully but his run came to an end on the 13th when, having found the bunker, he was forced to chip out back onto the fairway on his way to a five.

A huge drive at the 15th was also unlucky to find a bunker and, from a downhill lie, he landed in a second trap.

He fired his shot from the sand over the back of the green and was forced to settle for another bogey – nailing a nervy five-footer.

Now back to even par for the day, Dyson held his back after striking his tee shot into the left rough at 17 on his way to a double bogey six.

But he added: “I didn’t hit a bad shot really. My caddy told me there was a bunker on 15 that I couldn’t reach so I nailed it straight down the middle. It took a bounce left towards the bunker and disappeared. It was a good drive. I managed to make a good five in the end.

“I pulled my drive on the 17th and found a horrid lie. It just didn’t come out and then got a flier on the next one and left myself with a horrible chip.

“So from cruising at three under, not doing anything wrong, I was back to level par. It was nice to par the last because I hit a lovely drive and hit a decent second.”

He continued: “I am striking it well. If I had snapped it, hooked it and chipped it on and three putted then I would have thought something about it.

“It wasn’t down to bad shots. It was probably down to bad decisions from me. When you are playing well you don’t think about things, you just think about birdies.

“I made a great start. I could not have asked for a better start. Hit a lovely shot in to one, lucky at two, and then a lovely shot in to three and then four was the toughest hole on the course. It was playing brutal off the right.

“My back was okay.”