Damien McGrane holds a share of the Johnnie Walker Classic lead at the halfway stage in Perth, Australia. The Meathman carded a round of 68 to join America’s Anthony Kang at the top of the leaderboard on 10-under-par.
Four birdies in the final seven holes elevated the 37-year-old up the standings and the pair hold a one shot lead over Spain’s Ignacio Garrido, Japan’s Hiroyuki Fujita and New Zealand amateur Danny Lee.
First-round leader Robert Jan-Derksen was tied for the lead with Kang for much of the afternoon but a run of three consecutive bogeys saw him finish with a level-par 72 that dropped him into a tie for sixth with eight other players on eight under, including world number 11 Anthony Kim (68) and John Bickerton (70).
Graeme Storm and South Africa’s David Frost shot the low rounds of the day (64) to join Peter Lawrie (70), Colin Montgomerie (70) and Ian Poulter (69) amongst a group of 13 players tied 15th on seven under.
Gareth Maybin remains well-placed after his second round 70 left the 28-year-old on six under. However Gary Murphy won’t be around for the weekend after his 71 left the Kilkenny pro on level par, three shots outside the cut.
Lee Westwood recovered from a quadruple-bogey nine on the third to card a 73 that put him on five-under along with Paul Casey, who shot a 68.
World number nine Camilo Villegas of Colombia and Australian legend Greg Norman will not be around for the weekend after failing to make the cut. Villegas shot a 71 to finish on one under while Norman’s 72 saw him finish two over.
McGrane was handily placed at six under after the opening round and improved to eight-under before suffering consecutive bogeys on the ninth and 10th.
But he reeled off three straight birdies from the 12th to move back into contention and made his sixth birdie of the day at the final hole to grab a share of top spot with Kang.
“I played better off the tee today and hit more fairways, which was helpful,” said McGrane, who recorded his maiden European Tour win at last year’s Volvo China Open.
“I’m putting quite nicely again today. I made some mistakes in the middle of the round but I played solid overall and bounced back well from those mistakes at the ninth and 10th to shoot four under.
“After a bit of a shake in the middle it was nice to bounce back with three birdies in a row and I could have birdied a lot more holes.”
After failing to mount a challenge in Malaysia last week, Kang’s namesake Anthony Kim is happy to be back in contention once again.
“It’s been a good couple of days but I’m still making some careless mistakes,” said the 23-year-old. “I think I’m just starting to knock the rust off my game so I’m happy to have a shot going into the weekend and hopefully my game will keep improving.
“I have not even been playing at home so it’s been just rust from not practising and not playing because I’ve had a couple of injuries to deal with. Now that I’m finally over that, I can start practising at full speed again.”
Collated second round scores(Gbr & Irish unless stated, Irishin bold, par 72):
134Anthony Kang (USA) 67 67, Damien McGrane66 68
135Danny Lee (Nzl) 67 68, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 67 68, Hiroyuki Fujita (Jpn) 67 68
136Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 64 72, Andrew Dodt (Aus) 70 66, John Bickerton 66 70, Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) 70 66, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 65 71, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 68 68, Anthony Kim (USA) 68 68, Andre Stolz (Aus) 69 67, Adam Blyth (Aus) 68 68
137Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 72 65, Chris Gaunt (Aus) 68 69, Colin Montgomerie 67 70, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 70 67, Peter Lawrie67 70, Peter Senior (Aus) 70 67, David Frost (Rsa) 73 64, Seve Benson 70 67, Graeme Storm 73 64, Tony Carolan (Aus) 65 72, Alexander Noren (Swe) 68 69, Ian Poulter 68 69, Ross McGowan 70 67
138Michael Sim (Aus) 69 69, David Howell 70 68, Gareth Maybin68 70, Phillip Price 68 70, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 70 68, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 71 67, Gary Lockerbie 69 69, Taichiro Kiyota (Jpn) 68 70, Clint Rice (Aus) 67 71, Markus Brier (Aut) 70 68
139Scott Laycock (Aus) 68 71, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 68 71, Nick Dougherty 73 66, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 73 66, Paul Casey 71 68, Richard Finch 69 70, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 70 69, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 71 68, Brad Kennedy (Aus) 71 68, Hyung-sung Kim (Kor) 68 71, Lee Westwood 66 73
140Anthony Wall 70 70, Scott Hend (Aus) 68 72, Darren Beck (Aus) 70 70, Benn Barham 68 72, Sang-moon Bae (Kor) 70 70, Alistair Presnell (Aus) 72 68, Craig Parry (Aus) 71 69, James Kamte (Rsa) 73 67
141Anton Haig (Rsa) 69 72, Richie Ramsay 68 73, David Smail (Nzl) 70 71, Robert Dinwiddie 71 70, Marcel Siem (Ger) 72 69, Andrew Coltart 72 69, Tim Wood (Aus) 69 72, Simon Khan 68 73, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 71 70, Won Joon Lee (Aus) 71 70, Brett Rumford (Aus) 71 70, David McKenzie (Aus) 68 73, Michael Long (Nzl) 74 67, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 70 71, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 73 68
The following players failed to make the cut
142Bryan Saltus (USA) 71 71, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 71 71, Seung-yul Noh (Kor) 68 74, Stephen Leaney (Aus) 70 72, Michael McGrath (Aus) 73 69, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 73 69, Jason Knutzon (USA) 72 70, Adam Crawford (Aus) 72 70, Johan Edfors (Swe) 70 72, Stuart Bouvier (Aus) 69 73, Robert Rock 71 71, Stephen Dartnell (Aus) 71 71, Sam Little 69 73
143Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 71 72, Richie Gallichan (Aus) 69 74, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 72 71, Andrew Tschudin (Aus) 68 75, Simon Wakefield 70 73, Brad Lamb (Aus) 72 71, Tristan Lambert (Aus) 71 72, Tae hee Lee (Kor) 74 69, Artemio-hiromasa Murakami (Phi) 71 72, Angelo Que (Phi) 76 67, Camilo Villegas (Col) 72 71, Miles Tunnicliff 71 72, Ashley Hall (Aus) 71 72
144Scott Drummond 72 72, Wayne Perske (Aus) 70 74, Ben Leong (Mal) 72 72, Mark Brown (USA) 70 74, Cameron Percy (Aus) 71 73, Oliver Fisher 72 72, Jarrod Moseley (Aus) 74 70, Gary Murphy73 71, Scott Barr (Aus) 71 73, Taco Remkes (Ned) 73 71, Iain Steel (Mal) 70 74, Richard Green (Aus) 74 70, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 74 70, Pablo Martin (Spa) 73 71, Mark Foster 71 73
145Chih-bing Lam (Sin) 69 76, Jason Scrivener (Aus) 73 72, Adam Bland (Aus) 76 69, Craig Scott (Aus) 69 76, Jamie Donaldson 75 70, Phillip Archer 74 71, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 74 71, Ryan Hammond (Aus) 74 71, Paul Sheehan (Aus) 71 74, Matthew Griffin (Aus) 73 72
146Aaron Townsend (Aus) 77 69, Scott Strange (Aus) 74 72, Anthony Summers (Aus) 72 74, Ryan Haller (Aus) 74 72, Greg Norman (Aus) 75 71, Kane Webber (USA) 72 74, Josh Geary (Nzl) 75 71, Rick Kulacz (Aus) 71 75, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 71 75, Peter Wilson (Aus) 78 68
147Marcus Both (Aus) 70 77, David Gleeson (Aus) 75 72, Matthew Millar (Aus) 73 74, Alastair Forsyth 71 76, Anthony Brown (Aus) 77 70, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 72 75, Rhys Davies 77 70
148Marc Warren 71 77, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 78 70, Terry Price (Aus) 80 68, Gavin Flint (Aus) 73 75, Simon Griffiths 73 75
149Steven Bowditch (Aus) 76 73
150Steve Webster 73 77, Peter Fowler (Aus) 77 73
151Jason King (Aus) 77 74, Heath Reed (Aus) 75 76
152Chris Rodgers 77 75
153Chris Downes (Aus) 74 79, Steve Jones (USA) 77 76
156Ewan Porter (Aus) 77 79, Paul Broadhurst 75 81
160Michael Moore (Aus) 78 82
