Golf:Matt Griffin capitalised on Min-Kyu Han's return to the field by grabbing the outright lead at the halfway mark of the Australian PGA Championship at Coolum today.
The 26-year-old boldly declared after adding a three-under 68 to his opening 67 that he’s ready to claim victory but he’ll also be very aware that defending champion Geoff Ogilvy (66) and Stuart Appleby (69) are lurking just a shot back at minus-six with Jason Norris (67).
Although Australians Bronson La Cassie (69) and Scott Strange (70) both improved their overnight scores to five-under after 36 holes, Han failed to back up yesterday’s 62 as he carded five bogeys in his final 10 holes en route to a 75.
Michael Curtain walked away with round-of-the-day honours late on after completing a 65 that saw him on the front nine in 30 strokes, drawing him level on four-under with Robert Allenby (68), Adam Scott (70), Greg Chalmers (70) and Shih-ching Chan (70) of Chinese Taipei.
Griffin gave no hint of the move he would make later in the day when he followed a pair of back-nine birdies with bogeys on both occasions but he picked up further shots at the fourth, fifth and eighth holes to grab the lead despite playing in the tougher afternoon conditions.
“Yeah it was tricky out there this afternoon, luckily on the first day we didn’t get much wind,” Griffin said. “Today we probably had the tee time that got most of the wind, being right in the middle, the wind was all over the place out there.”
Ogilvy got off to an encouraging start to his round with a birdie at the second only to then double-bogey the next but six birdies in a dozen holes from the fifth allowed him to make his presence felt as he soared up the leaderboard.
Two years after suffering horrific facial injuries falling from a bike on the Friday night after he’d missed the cut at Coolum, Norris said after collecting five birdies and a bogey that the venue ‘owes’ him.
“Doesn’t matter what happens, if you have a great weekend it would be fantastic, it would be a good Christmas,” Norris said.
“Obviously it would mean much more to me after a couple of years ago, I have never won a huge event and I plan on winning one before I give it away, I’d like to, definitely.”
Han parred the first seven holes but wayward putting dropped him right back into the pack as he followed with five bogeys.
A day after both Allenby and Appleby had adventures in the water, Allenby having stepped in there with his trousers rolled up to the ankles and Appleby having thought he was going to fall in playing a shot on a bank, Allenby dispensed completely with his trousers at the third.
With his second shot he landed his ball on the bank lining the green but it rolled back and with his third, wearing only his boxer shorts and thigh-deep in the water, he got out of the hazard but still needed three more shots to complete a double-bogey after missing his eight-foot putt for bogey and lamented not finishing lower.
“I think four-under is fine but I wished I was a couple better, I think six (under) going into the weekend would have been a lot better but it just means that I have to make a lot of birdies over the last 36 holes,” Allenby said.
Collated second round scores and totals in the Australian PGA Tour Australian PGA Championship, Hyatt Regency Coolum Resort GC, Queensland, Australia
(Aus unless stated, par 71):
135Matthew Griffin 67 68
136Jason Norris 69 67, Geoff Ogilvy 70 66, Stuart Appleby 67 69
137Min-kyu Han (Kor) 62 75, Scott Strange 67 70, Bronson LaCassie 68 69
138Adam Scott 68 70, Robert Allenby 70 68, Shin-Ching Chan (Tpe) 68 70, Greg Chalmers 68 70, Michael Curtain 73 65
139Chris Campbell 72 67, Tim Wilkinson (Nzl) 68 71
140Brett Rumford 70 70, John Senden 73 67, Andrew Dodt 67 73, Nick O'Hern 70 70, Michael Wright 71 69
141Michael Sim 71 70, Stephen Leaney 71 70, Cameron Percy 72 69, Paul Marantz 69 72, John Daly (USA) 71 70, Henry Epstein 67 74, Stephen Dartnell 68 73, Marc Leishman 70 71, Paul Sheehan 73 68
142Scott Laycock 76 66, Rodney Pampling 73 69, Kyle Stanley (USA) 71 71, Andrew Tschudin 73 69, Adam Crawford 71 71, Mathew Goggin 70 72, Marcus Both 70 72, Anthony Brown 71 71, Leigh Mckechnie 72 70, Bryce Molder (USA) 73 69, Gavin Flint 71 71, Brad Kennedy 76 66, Chao Li (Chn) 71 71
143Mahal Pearce (Nzl) 73 70, Aron Price 74 69, Ryan Haller 66 77, Nick Flanagan 76 67, Josh Geary (Nzl) 70 73, Steve Marino (USA) 70 73, Nathan Green 71 72, Jarrod Lyle 70 73, Richard Green 71 72
144Scott Barr 74 70, Matthew Millar 71 73, Craig Parry 71 73, Peter O'Malley 73 71
145Tae hee Lee (Kor) 75 70, Rick Kulacz 71 74, Steven Conran 70 75, Heath Reed 70 75
146Aaron Townsend 69 77, Paul Gow 75 71, Darren Beck 74 72, David Smail (Nzl) 71 75, Ben Burge 79 67, Anthony Summers 76 70, Terry Pilkadaris 71 75, Ji-Man Kang (Kor) 74 72, Brad Andrews 72 74, Kurt Barnes 76 70, Peter Wilson 72 74, Graeme Stockley 75 71
The following players failed to make the cut
147Gareth Paddison (Nzl) 71 76, Michael Long (Nzl) 73 74, Jae-woong Eom (Kor) 73 74, Andre Stolz 71 76, Craig Spence 71 76, Rodger Davis 72 75, Stuart Bouvier 71 76, Marcus Fraser 72 75
148Kevin Chun (Nzl) 74 74, Ho-sung Choi (Kor) 73 75, Jae-hae Choe (USA) 70 78, Tim Wood 73 75, Chang-kyu Hong (USA) 70 78, Peter Senior 71 77, James Nitties 71 77, David Diaz 74 74, Richard Moir 78 70, Jarrod Moseley 71 77, Tony Carolan 73 75, Seong Ho Lee (Kor) 73 75, Shintaro Iizuka (Jpn) 72 76
149Ki joon Song 72 77, Chris Gaunt 73 76, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 71 78, Andrew Bonhomme 77 72, Chang wan Woo (Can) 72 77, Steven Bowditch 75 74, Steven Jeffress 76 73, Brad Lamb 74 75, Tristan Lambert 74 75, David McKenzie 74 75, Min-chang Lee (Kor) 70 79, Craig Scott 74 75, Alistair Presnell 75 74
150Scott Hend 76 74, Adam Bland 75 75, Meng Zhang (Chn) 74 76, Michael McGrath 73 77, Jae Hoon Jung (Kor) 74 76, Jamie Lovemark (USA) 73 77, Ashley Hall 71 79, Kyong-jun Moon (Kor) 75 75
151Soon-sang Hong (Kor) 76 75, Ed Stedman 77 74, Steve Jones (USA) 75 76
152Rowan Beste 76 76, Michael Brennan 76 76, Ewan Porter 74 78, Lucas Bates (Can) 76 76, C j Gatto (USA) 73 79, Wayne Perske 76 76
153Kevin Stadler (USA) 77 76, Josh Lane 79 74, Michael Moore 73 80, Stephen Allan 76 77
154Andrew Mckenzie 79 75, Gui Ming Liao (Chn) 77 77, Terry Price 75 79
156David Gleeson 83 73, Ryan Hammond 79 77, Qin Xu (Chn) 73 83
157Sung-kug Park (Kor) 78 79, Wade Ormsby 82 75, Max Kellner (Ger) 78 79, Tony Mills 84 73
159Ye Tian (Chn) 81 78, Damon Welsford 82 77
160Zhi Xie (Chn) 83 77, Steven Han (Nzl) 80 80, Kim Felton 87 73
161Kenichi Sawada (Jpn) 76 85
162Nathan Uebergang 87 75, Tae-hyun Jun (Kor) 78 84, Gregg Mcintosh 83 79
163Kevin Chen (Chn) 86 77, Kelvin Jones (Nzl) 86 77
164Darren Kapusi 83 81, Jian Chen (Chn) 83 81
165Zhi jun Ou (Chn) 86 79
166Jian Hou (Chn) 84 82
177Ning Bo (Chn) 87 90
WD: 75 Won-Kyung Heo, David Oh, 78 Jason King, 83 Scott Hill, In-Woo Lee
