Date: May 30, 2009
Author: Sportal and PA Sport

Day shines in Texas

Jason Day shot his second consecutive 65 to be well in contention at the halfway stage of the Crowne Plaza Invitational in Texas. Day shot seven birdies and two bogeys to move up to 10-under overall and outright fifth place, four shots off the lead. John Senden and James Nitties are five strokes behind Day in a tie for 17th. Geoff Ogilvy and Nick O&aposHern will have to improve over the weekend if they are to trouble the leaders, currently at three-under and two-under respectively. Rod Pampling, Adam Scott and Aron Price were the only other Australians to make the cut and are all tied for 54th place at one-under. Competing in his first tournament since 2001, Ian Baker-Finch failed to replicate his good first round and failed to make the cut after a disappointing eight-over-par 78. Steve Stricker posted a new 36-hole record for the Fort Worth course, his 63 for a second day in succession ensuring the lead at 14-under. His 126 broke the previous record by two strokes, but he admitted he would trade that accolade for the winner&aposs cheque come Sunday. “I&aposd rather have the trophy. We&aposre only halfway through. I&aposd like to keep making putts. That solves a lot of problems,” he said. “I kind of like what&aposs going on right now.” “It was a lot of fun out there – again.” Tim Clark is a shot behind Striker at 13-under, while Vija Singh is a further stroke back and Sean O&aposHair is also in the hunt at 11-under. Meanwhile, in London Marcus Fraser is just three shots off the pace at the halfway mark of the European Open. Fraser backed up his 69 on Thursday with a two-under-par round of 70 to take him to five-under overall and a tie for ninth place. Michael Lorenzo-Vera and Jeev Milkha Singh share the lead at eight-under par. Brett Rumford will be the only other Australian to play the weekend after he narrowly avoided the two-over cut by one stroke. Crowne Plaza Invitational After Round 2 -14: Steve Stricker 63 63 -13: Tim Clark 63 64 -12: Vijay Singh 64 64 -11: Sean O&aposHair 65 64 -10: Jason Day (Australia) 65 65 -9: Woody Austin 63 68 -8: Ryan Palmer 69 63 -7: Luke Donald 68 65, Paul Casey 66 67, Kevin Sutherland 66 67, James Driscoll 69 64, Steve Marino 6 67 -6: Jason Bohn 69 65, Ted Purdy 69 65, Kevin Na 66 68, Justin Leonard 66 68 -5: Lucas Glover 70 65, John Senden (Australia) 68 67, Ian Poulter 66 69, James Nitties (Australia) 67 68 Also: -4: Danny Lee (New Zealand) 69 67 -3: Geoff Ogilvy (Australia) 70 67 -2: Nick O Hern (Australia) 69 69 -1: Rod Pampling (Australia) 73 66, Adam Scott (Australia) 68 71, Aron Price (Australia) 67 72 +1: Matthew Goggin (Australia) 68 73 +6: Ian Baker-Finch (Australia) 68 78 +10: Peter Lonard (Australia) 74 76 Second Round of the European Open -8: Michael Lorenzo-Vera 67 69, Jeev Milkha Singh 67 69 -7: Christian Cevaer 67 70, Anthony Wall 68 69 -6: Jamie Donaldson 68 70, Anders Hansen 65 73, Jose Manuel Lara 70 68, Peter Lawrie 67 71 -5: Marcus Fraser (Australia) 69 70, Peter Hanson 66 73, Jyoti Randhawa 66 73 -4: Chris Doak 68 72, Daniel Vancsik 69 71 -3: Gregory Bourdy 71 70, Ben Curtis 68 73, Bradley Dredge 72 69, Ignacio Garrido 71 70, Tano Goya 69 72, Anton Haig 68 73, Shiv Kapur 67 74, Sam Little 66 75, Ross McGowan 70 71, Alvaro Quiros 71 70, Steve Webster 69 72 Also: +1: Brett Rumford (Australia) 75 70 +3: Richard Green (Australia) 73 74, Peter O Malley (Australia) 74 73 +8: Marcus Fraser (Australia) 77 75 +10: Peter Senior (Australia) 73 81 +11: Michael Campbell (New Zealand) 80 75 +12: Mark Brown (New Zealand) 77 79 +13: Scott Arnold (Australia) 79 78