It’s an all Australian affair at the top of the leaderboard after Victoria’s Brett Coletta wrestled the lead from New South Welshman Cameron Davis at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, played at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club in Incheon, Korea.
With a start at the 2017 US Masters on the line, it might be an awkward evening for the pair who are roommates for the week, with Coletta leading the way on 10-under and Davis a shot back after today’s 3-under 69.
Japan’s Junya Kameshiro is three shot in arrears in third while Perth’s Curtis Luck, already qualified for the Masters as the US Amateur Champion, is one of four golfers tied for fourth place on 5-under.
Coletta wrapped up his second straight round of 67 with a birdie on his final hole as overnight leader Davis was preparing to tee off for the second round, now three shots behind Coletta.
The pair exchanged words before Davis headed to the tee and Davis shed some light into the conversation.
“I just said ‘well played mate’, he did play well so it was worth saying something,” Davis said.
“I don’t want to come across as someone who is unfriendly so I thought I needed to say something. I thought he’d been playing well, it wasn’t easy.”
And Davis has every reason to want to keep things jovial between he and Coletta who will not only share tomorrow’s round together, but dinner and a room after the pair were allocated together as room-mates pre-tournament.
“I’m sure it’s going to be just as it always is, we’ll both have a laugh about it,” said Davis.
“Everyone’s going to having dinner together so I’m sure banter will be going between the golf and whatever else so it’s be really light amongst us tonight and I’m sure it’ll be the same on the course tomorrow.”
Coletta, who spent the afternoon going to the mall with Australian team-mates Luck and Harrison Endycott, said today’s round wasn’t easy despite being the best placed golfer in the field.
Coming off a bogey on 17, the world's no.67 ranked amateur appeared unhappy after a miss-hit on 8th tee.
Coletta still found the fairway but was again disappointed to leave his second shot in the bowl in front of the 18th green, yet the Sandhurst member scrambled well with an impressive up and down for birdie.
“That was just a loose swing I think,” said Coletta about his tee shot on 18.
“I didn’t feel as comfortable today to be completely honest, and I didn’t hit is as good today striking wise.
“It’s how good your bad shots not how good your good shots are, and I just recovered and that was a perfect example where I hit a pretty poor drive but I got a good result and my second shot wasn’t too much better and I hit it down in that valley.
“It’s really quite wet down there and you could easily flub it but I hit my shot and holed the putt — everything can change so quickly.”