Date: February 28, 2009
Author:

Nitties in the hunt

James Nitties is in a tie for seventh place at the halfway stage of Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico. The Australian shot a four-under par 66 in his second round to move up to five-under overall, five shots off the leaders. Jarrod Lyle is a shot behind Nitties in a tie for 11th after a disappointing one-over 71, while Greg Chalmers is in 15th place. Peter Lonard is in 22nd at two-under, with Jason Day and Aron Price a further shot back. Nathan Green (T51) and Nick O&aposHern (T68) both just made the cut, but there was no such luck for Matt Jones, Steve Allan and Marc Leishman. Mark Wilson and Kevin Na are tied at the top of the leaderboard at 10-under-par 130. Wilson fired a six-under-par 64 while Na carded a 62 as the pair hold a two-stroke lead over Bo Van Pelt and JJ Henry, who carded a 69 and 66 respectively en route to a 132 entering the third day of play at the US dollars 3.6million event. Wilson could have been in the lead had he not offset his seven birdies with a bogey on the par five 13th. Though his lead appeared safe earlier in the round, Wilson could not hold off fellow American Na, who carded six birdies on his final nine holes to forge the tie. Briny Baird and Chris Riley are three shots back at seven under 133. Van Pelt surged ahead on Thursday with seven birdies over his final nine holes, but he had trouble with his consistency in the second round, erasing two of his three birdies with bogeys on number six and 15. Defending champion Brian Gay is tied for 22nd with 12 other players – eight shots off the lead – after shooting even-par round en route to a two-under 138 for the tournament.