Adam Scott bogeyed his final hole on Friday for a 1-under 70 to share the lead with fellow Australian Peter Wilson after two rounds of the Australian Masters at Huntingdale.
Scott and Wilson, who shot his second consecutive 67, had 36-hole totals of 8-under 134 on the southeast Melbourne sand-belt course. They led by one stroke over Australian Matthew Guyatt (66), while Brett Rumford, who shot 64 for the low round of the day, and American George McNeil (66), were tied for third.
US Amateur champion Bryson DeChambeau, playing in Scott’s group, shot 70. The American was at 3-under, tied for 12th and five strokes behind leading pair.
Scott had four birdies on the front nine to lead the tournament by five strokes, but stumbled on the back, double-bogeying the 10th after an errant drive and adding another bogey on 13 before faltering again on the 18th.
“It was a tale of two halves, I played very nice on the front nine, good solid stuff, but I just fought my way home after I lost all my momentum there (on the 10th),” Scott said. “You have to be so precise when you drive around here, and I wasn’t today.”
McNeil who is playing in Australia for the first time, holed his 9-iron from 148 yards for an eagle-2 on the ninth, his final hole of the day.
lahiri bounces back
Dubai: Anirban lahiri nailed seven birdies against a sole double bogey for a five-under 67 that brought him back into the $8 million DP World Tour Championships here on Friday.
Winner of Malaysian Open and Hero Indian Open this year, the 28-year-old lahiri is now four-under through 36 holes to be tied-23rd and is primed up to round off a dream year on the European Tour. He improved 23 places on the second day.
lahiri made use of a lot of chances that came his way despite the double on par-4 fifth. But after that mishap, he came back strongly with four birdies in five holes around the turn from seventh to 11th holes. He finished off the day with a birdie on 18th.
lahiri is eight shots behind the leader, Andy Sullivan (66), whose 30-odd fellow members from his home club, Nuneaton, made for a noisy gallery while egging him onto some great play.
Gangjee cards 66
Manila: Rahil Gangjee closed his second round with an eagle and had five other birdies in a fine card of six-under 66 for a total of six-under 136 at the midway stage of the $1 million Resorts World Manila Masters on Friday.
lying tied-10th at the midway stage of the event, Gangjee was four shots behind the leading trio of Chinese Taipei’s young guns Hung Chien-yao and lee Chieh-po and South Africa’s Jbe Kruger.
The next best Indian was SSP Chawrasia (70-70), who played a second successive round of two-under 70 and he was tied-25th. However, Jyoti Randhawa, India’s best on first day, slipped from fourth to 33rd as he shot two-over 74, which included a triple bogey on par-5 fourth hole.