Glasgow golfer Marc Warren is relishing the prospect of a late season push as he looks to make up for lost time during an injury-hampered campaign on the European Tour.

After kick-starting his season with a runners-up finish in the Portugal Masters last weekend, Warren took another stride forward at Close House yesterday as he safely qualified for the final 36-holes of the British Masters.

The 36-year-old, who posted a tidy three-under 67 for a three-under aggregate, had been facing a real fight to retain his Tour card until he hoisted himself up the order of merit with that second place on the Algarve.

At 100th on the circuit’s money list, Warren is on the limit of the card-retaining places and still has work to do to safeguard his playing rights for 2018.

With his bothersome shoulder injury on the mend, though, the former Walker Cup star has put those concerns behind him and is looking forward with optimism.

He said: "I felt I was battling with my game in the height of the summer as my swing felt technically poor and that was probably down to the fact I didn't have the tools to go to war. It is good to be coming through the other side now with no niggles or pain. In fact, the Paul Lawrie Matchplay (at the end of the August) was the first time I’d played pain-free since Dubai in February.

"It was a pretty frustrating spell, especially March and April time. I couldn't get my arm above my shoulder at one point. I was struggling to lift Archie (his son) up, for example. The shoulder would just totally pack in. It was same if I tried to take something off a shelf. It wasn't great.”

It’s taken a while to get to the source of Warren’s irritation but the Scot is hoping he can now plough on with a clean bill of health.

He added: "The first diagnosis I got was that it was a Hills-Sachs lesion and a grade 2 tear of my rotator cuff and that would have meant surgery then three months off. I got other opinions and then went with the cortisone injection. The second one I had was in a slightly different place and I also ended up having to get a cortisone injection in my thumb as it was seizing up after I'd hit 60 balls. From not really having an injury in my whole career it all seemed to be happening at once.

"I didn't look at my Race to Dubai position because I knew there was no point. I was just trying to convince myself that if I played well in this run of tournaments, which will be 10 in a row, I could turn things around. This is the perfect time to start doing it.”

At the head of the field, Tyrell Hatton, who will defend his Dunhill Links Championship on Scottish soil next week, led an English assault as he finished with a 12-under tally to set the halfway pace after a 65.

Behind him, a couple of his veteran compatriots manoeuvred themselves into position for a weekend offensive as Lee Westwood, the tournament host, and former Ryder Cup talisman Ian Poulter blasted 65s for nine-under 131s to sit in a share of second.

Aberdeen’s Richie Ramsay was leading the Scottish challenge on the fringes of the top-10 after closing a 67 with a birdie putt of 45-feet on the last to sit on six-under. Rory McIlroy, playing in his penultimate event of the year before taking a three month break, posted a 69 to finish on four-under.