Date: November 05, 2015
Author: Olivia McMillan, PGA of Australia

Sim in front out West

Michael Sim will take a two shot lead into the weekend of the Nexus Risk TSA Group WA Open.

After a challenging day on course for all the players, Michael Sim was happy to be in the clubhouse with a second round 2-under 70.

After two rounds Sim leads a congested leaderboard on 8-under the card but is hoping to go low in the weekend rounds.

Sitting two shots behind Sim are four players; Jason Scrivener, Daniel Valente, Daniel Fox and amateur Curtis Luck.

Jason Scrivener felt like the 2-under 70 on his scorecard was not truly indicative of how he played, believing his putter kept him in contention.

Amateur Curtis Luck escaped with an even par round where the only blemish on his scorecard was a double bogey on the par-4 16th.

Daniel Fox is pleased to be back in contention after his runner-up finish at the TX Civil & Logistics WA PGA Championship believing an improved putting set-up was the difference between his two rounds of 70, 68 this week.

Despite feeling like he was hitting the ball poorly during his warm-up, Daniel Valente was surprised to put together a solid round of 3-under 69.

Rounding out the top-10 on the leaderboard on 4-under the card are; Jake McLeod, Steve Dartnall, Darren Beck, Jordan Zunic, Mitchell A. Brown and Anthony Houston.

The second round cut at the Nexus Risk TSA Group WA Open was made at 2-over the card with 54 Professionals and six amateurs making the weekend rounds.

The third round of the Nexus Risk TSA Group WA Open will tee off at 8.40am with the last group of Michael Sim, Curtis Luck and Daniel Fox on course at 10.20am.

 

Key Quotes: Michael Sim, 66, 70, 8-under, 1st

“I got off to a good start; I birdied the 10th hole out of the gate. I just played pretty solid actually on the first nine.”

“When the rain came in there for a few holes the ball seemed to be going about a club shorter. So I came up short on a few iron shots but got the ball up and down when I needed to. I am right there for the weekend.”

“Whenever I play golf here, I normally play it in a sea breeze, I’m used to playing with the wind straight down on 18 and today it was kind of the other way. The par-3’s play a bit longer.”

“Some of the greens early on were really firm and the rain came in and softened them up a little bit on the back-9.”

“I think the pin positions were a little bit harder, they tucked a few on 12, 13, 14 and 15 so they were tough to get at so that’s probably why the scoring isn’t as good.”

 

Jason Scrivener, 68, 70, 6-under, T2

“It was a very scrappy day; I didn’t hit it very well all day but managed to putt really well and got it in the hole.”

“Just the putter really saved me today, a lot of good par putts and made a few good birdie putts on my back-9, but yeah just not the best.”

“A bit scrappy but really couldn’t have been better than 2-under today.”

 

Curtis Luck, 66, 72, 6-under, T2

“Today was a bit different in comparison to yesterday’s round. I hit it pretty poorly, just scrambled my way out of pretty much everything and got out of trouble. The 72 doesn’t really reflect how poorly I hit it but I will take it.”

“Holes like 18 are really difficult to hit a good tee shot down there because it’s actually too downwind to hold the fairway. Even if you hitting a three wood you still have to hit an unbelievably good shot.”

“Really happy, just hoping that the weather is a bit nicer on the weekend and I can go out there and post a better number than today.”

 

Daniel Valente, 69, 69, 6-under, T2

“I played really well today and I played really well yesterday. It was tough out there this afternoon; I putted really nicely and played really solid.”

“I hit the ball worse than I have in a long time on the range before I played. I probably hit balls for an extra 20 minutes than what I usually do to try and sort it out, it felt terrible.”

“If you had of said to me this morning, when I was hitting balls, I was going to shoot 3-under, especially after it got really windy and I doubled 16 so I was 2-over and was just scrapping it around, I would have thought you were lying, I wouldn’t have believed you.”

 

Daniel Fox, 68, 70, 6-under T2

“I was working on my putting, I wasn’t happy with the speed; these greens were a lot quicker than I possibly thought they would be.”

“I went home and our greens are typically quite quick. I just worked on a speed drill just to get some consistency on my strike.”

“It was a little set-up problem more than anything, I had my hands a little higher and all of a sudden I was releasing the putter properly and I putted excellent today, other than that one hole, it was unbelievable, as good as I have putted in a long time.”

“Actually, yesterday I probably felt more nervous knowing that I had a good result, that I didn’t want it to seem like it was just a fluke, so I was really pleased to come out and be in contention again."