Date: October 20, 2007
Author:

Aussie pair through in Portugal

Australians Brett Rumford and Terry Price have made the cut at the Portugal Open, but three of their countrymen weren&apost so lucky. Argentina&aposs Daniel Vancsik (66) had another encouraging round on his way back from injury to move to 14-under, two shots clear of three players. Rumford followed up his opening round 67 with a solid rather than spectacular 71 to be six-under at the halfway mark in Vilamoura. Price, meanwhile, is 10 strokes from the leader after he battled his way to a second-round 73 to be four-under the card. Fellow Australians Matthew Millar (70), Marcus Fraser (72) and Peter O&aposMalley (75) were all missed the cut. They weren&apost in bad company, however, with David Howell and Darren Clarke, Ryder Cup heroes a year ago, also bundled out at the 36-hole mark. Howell, third on last season&aposs Order of Merit, began the tournament a lowly 136th on the money list and made it six missed cuts in his last seven starts. Clarke, down in 129th place and without a single top-10 finish since his amazing performance against the Americans six weeks after wife Heather lost her battle with cancer, was on one-under after a 73. Clarke&aposs previous lowest finish on the money list was 112th in his rookie season in 1991, but since then he has never been lower than last year&aposs 43rd. Paul McGinley, another member of last year&aposs Ryder Cup side, also made an early exit. The leader Vancsik won the Madeira Islands Open in March and was leading the Madrid Open on Sunday until he ran up a quintuple-bogey nine on the fifth hole of the final round. The powerfully-built 30-year-old, who finished third, has had 16 birdies across the opening two days in Portugal. “This course is good for my game. The driver is my best club and I can fly all the bunkers,” he said. German Martin Kaymer had to be content with a 72 a day after a course record 61 had given him a three-stroke lead Portugal Masters, Vilamoura, Portugal (Par 72): -14 Daniel Vancsik 64 66 -12 Martin Erlandsson 64 68, Ross Fisher 68 64, Alvaro Quiros 66 66, Steve Webster 66 66 -11 Martin Kaymer 61 72, Charl Schwartzel 66 67 -10 Peter Hanson 69 65, Sam Walker 66 68, Lee Westwood 65 69 -9 James Hepworth 67 68, Raphael Jacquelin 68 67, Robert Karlsson 67 68, Mads Vibe-Hastrup 67 68 also: -6 Brett Rumford (Australia) 67 71 -4 Terry Price (Australia) 67 73 missed cut: E Matthew Millar (Australia) 74 70 +1 Marcus Fraser (Australia) 73 72 +2 Peter O&aposMalley (Australia) 71 75