ANOTHER GREAT DANE LEADS THE
WAY AT CELTIC MANOR ... BUT
SCOTS ARE ON HIS TAIL
Mads Vibe-Hastrup used the inspiration of fellow Dane Anders Hansen’s victory in last week’s BMW PGA Championship to claim the halfway lead in he Celtic Manor Wales Open today
The 28-year-old has partnered his fellow countryman many times in practice and was cheering him on on television last Sunday as he beat Justin Rose in a play-off to win at Wentworth Club to win the title for a second time.
“It was fantastic that he went on and won there,” said Vibe-Hastrup. “His season has been so-so and then he goes and wins the biggest tournament on European Tour. It just shows that it can be done.”
Vibe-Hastrup’s form by his own admission has not been great this season either but he made a mockery of that statistic with a fine showing over the Roman Road course at Celtic Manor.
The former Doug Sanders world boys champion - he won that title in Aberdeen - matched the best score of the week at the Newport course, a six-under-par 63 to move to eight under par 130 for the tournament and take a one shot lead over the Scottish duo of Alastair Forsyth and Steven O’Hara, who carded respective rounds of 65 and 66 for 131 and Australia’s Brett Rumford who matched O’Hara’s 66.
“I have missed a couple of cuts in recent months when my putting has been off but I played well in Ireland a couple of weeks ago in tough conditions and that gave me confidence,” said Vibe-Hastrup.
“I had a week off last week and so I felt fresh coming here and I was looking forward to going out to play – and I think that has shown in the way I have played over the first two days. I am looking forward to the weekend.”
First man in on the seven under par mark of 131 was Forsyth and the winner of the 2002 Carlsberg Malaysian Open on The European Tour had a fast beginning to his second round 65 to thank largely for that, birdieing the second and fourth and sandwiching an eagle 3 at the third in the middle.
“I got off to an absolute flier, it was just what I was looking for,” said the 31 year old from Paisley. “Four under after four holes, you are looking at goodness knows what and I must admit that the thought of a 59 did come into my head for a moment.
“I tried not to think too much about it and just tried to do what I was doing but I just dropped a couple of shots at the wrong time. I three-putted the 11th for bogey and I suppose that put paid to any hope of a 59.
“It was a little disappointing to only card a four under par round after that start but it was another solid performance so I am not going to complain too much.”
Joining him shortly afterwards was fellow Scot O’Hara who admitted he was exhausted after completing his second round 66, a round which contained four birdies and only one dropped shot at the short eighth where his tee shot found the greenside bunker and he failed to get up and down.
“I was due off pretty early on but because we had the hour and three quarter delay for fog this morning I actually didn’t start until after nine o’clock,” he said.
“The only problem with that was that by the time I teed off I’d hit about 200 balls or something like that. Therefore it was good to get back out and get started eventually when they said we were going to start.
“I don’t mind practising but I think maybe I overdid it a little bit today, especially when I was up at 5.30! But it all turned out okay so that’s the main thing.”
While the Scottish duo finished early in the day, Australian Rumford left it until almost fading light before posting his 66 to get to seven under par, a fine effort considering that his second round started with two consecutive dropped shots.
“I started off a bit shaky but after that I came back and steadied the ship with a few birdies from there and that helped give me momentum to move forward.
“I putted really well once again considering the greens late on in the afternoon were getting quite slow and bouncy. But I putted very nicely, made some good saves and also made some good putts for birdies too. It is only halfway I know, but it is good to be up there again.”
As with Thursday’s first round when there was a European Tour record nine players tied for the lead overnight, the logjam effect continued on the Roman Road course as 10 players tied for fifth place on six under par.
Amongst them was home favourite Bradley Dredge who carded a 66 and the 2005 US Open champion Michael Campbell who matched the Welshman’s score to show a welcome return to form.
While Campbell will be in the thick of the action over the weekend, two of the other pre-tournament favourites, double US Open champion Retief Goosen and defending champion Robert Karlsson will have to content themselves with watching the action on the television after both missed the cut which fell at one under par 137.
ALL THE SCORES FROM CELTIC MANOR
Par 138 (2 x 69).
Players from GB&I unless stated
130 Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 67 63.
131 Alastair Forsyth 66 65, Steven O'Hara 65 66, Brett Rumford (Aus) 65 66.
132 Gary Orr 65 67, Gregory Havret (Fra) 69 63, Paul Broadhurst 65 67, David Frost (SAf) 68 64, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 67 65, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 69 63, Bradley Dredge 66 66, Michael Campbell (NZ) 66 66, Nick Dougherty 69 63, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 65 67.
133 Stephen Gallacher 67 66, Matthew Zions (Aus) 66 67, Phillip Archer 68 65, Gary Murphy 68 65, Simon Khan 67 66, Paul Lawrie 65 68, Benn Barham 70 63, David Griffiths 68 65, Simon Thornton 69 64.
134 Richard Sterne (SAf) 67 67, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 65 69, Colin Montgomerie 70 64, James Kingston (SAf) 66 68, Oliver Wilson 66 68, Andrew Coltart 69 65, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 68 66, Liam Bond 66 68.
135 Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 66 69, Anton Haig (SAf) 68 67, Anders Hansen (Den) 70 65, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 65 70, Mattias Eliasson (Swe) 66 69, Mark Foster 67 68, Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned) 69 66, Peter Lawrie 66 69, Mardan Mamat (Sing) 71 64, Eirik Tage Johansen (Nor) 69 66, Miles Tunnicliff 70 65, Thomas Levet (Fra) 68 67, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 66 69, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 69 66, Kenneth Ferrie 71 64.
136 David Bransdon (Aus) 68 68, David Carter 68 68, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 68 68, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 69 67, Jesus Maria Arruti (Spa) 69 67, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 68 68, Kyron Sullivan 68 68, Garry Houston 67 69, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 72 64, James Heath 67 69, Tom Whitehouse 71 65.
137 Shiv Kapur (Ind) 68 69, Manuel Quiros (Spa) 70 67, Robert Rock 67 70, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 72 65, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 67 70, Steve Alker (NZ) 65 72, Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 66 71, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 69 68, Marcel Siem (Ger) 69 68, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 68 69, Henrik Nystrom (Swe) 70 67, Phillip Price 67 70, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 66 71, Simon Wakefield 69 68.
MISSED CUT
138 Andrew Raitt 69 69, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 70 68, Sam Walker 69 69, Sion Bebb 69 69, Richard McEvoy 70 68, Anthony Wall 71 67, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 73 65, Ian Garbutt 71 67, Oliver Fisher 70 68, Peter Senior (Aus) 70 68.
139 Gary Lockerbie 71 68, Sandy Lyle 71 68, Darren Fichardt (SAf) 71 68, Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 69 70, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 71 68, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 72 67, Gordon Brand jun 72 67, Marcus Higley 69 70, Liang Wen-chong (Chi) 69 70, Graeme Storm 69 70, Andrew Marshall 72 67, Matthew Richardson 69 70, Andrew Tampion (Aus) 68 71.
140 David Lynn 67 73, Sam Little 70 70, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 70 70, Carl Suneson (Spa) 72 68, Alexander Noren (Swe) 69 71, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 70 70, Christopher Hanell (Swe) 71 69, Lee Slattery 69 71, Ben Evans (am) 72 68, Richard Bland 73 67, Peter Hanson (Swe) 70 70, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 71 69, Sven Struver (Ger) 73 67, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 71 69, Alexandre Rocha (Bra) 69 71, Edward Rush 68 72.
141 Simon Dyson 73 68, Shaun Webster 68 73, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 70 71, Damien McGrane 72 69, Craig Smith 69 72, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 73 68, Mark Pilkington 73 68, Santiago Luna (Spa) 74 67.
142 Graeme McDowell 74 68, Ross Fisher 69 73, Terry Price (Aus) 69 73, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 72 70, David Park 69 73, Julien Guerrier (Fra) 69 73, Taichi Teshima (Jpn) 71 71, Jose Manuel Carriles (Spa) 73 69, Christian Nilsson (Swe) 72 70.
143 Steve Webster 73 70, Retief Goosen (SAf) 70 73, David Drysdale 71 72, Richard Finch 71 72, Matthew Millar (Aus) 72 71, Rhys Enoch (am) 75 68.
144 Scott Drummond 74 70, Ariel Canete (Arg) 71 73, Jonathan Lomas 72 72, Jamie Spence 71 73
145 Lee James 70 75, Adrien Mork (Fra) 78 67, Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 77 68, Peter Gustafsson (Swe) 73 72
146 Marc Warren 76 70, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 76 70, Birgir Hafthorsson (Ice) 73 73, Luis Claverie (Spa) 74 72.
147 Mark Litton 77 70.
148 Gary Emerson 73 75.
151 Gareth Davies 78 73, Francois Calmels (Fra) 75 76.
155 (x) Llewellyn Matthews (am) 78 77.
Ret: Barry Lane, Carlos Rodiles (Spa), Maarten Lafeber (Ned).
Withdrew: Thongchai Jaidee (Tha), Gary Marks, Chapchai Nirat (Tha)
WAY AT CELTIC MANOR ... BUT
SCOTS ARE ON HIS TAIL
Mads Vibe-Hastrup used the inspiration of fellow Dane Anders Hansen’s victory in last week’s BMW PGA Championship to claim the halfway lead in he Celtic Manor Wales Open today
The 28-year-old has partnered his fellow countryman many times in practice and was cheering him on on television last Sunday as he beat Justin Rose in a play-off to win at Wentworth Club to win the title for a second time.
“It was fantastic that he went on and won there,” said Vibe-Hastrup. “His season has been so-so and then he goes and wins the biggest tournament on European Tour. It just shows that it can be done.”
Vibe-Hastrup’s form by his own admission has not been great this season either but he made a mockery of that statistic with a fine showing over the Roman Road course at Celtic Manor.
The former Doug Sanders world boys champion - he won that title in Aberdeen - matched the best score of the week at the Newport course, a six-under-par 63 to move to eight under par 130 for the tournament and take a one shot lead over the Scottish duo of Alastair Forsyth and Steven O’Hara, who carded respective rounds of 65 and 66 for 131 and Australia’s Brett Rumford who matched O’Hara’s 66.
“I have missed a couple of cuts in recent months when my putting has been off but I played well in Ireland a couple of weeks ago in tough conditions and that gave me confidence,” said Vibe-Hastrup.
“I had a week off last week and so I felt fresh coming here and I was looking forward to going out to play – and I think that has shown in the way I have played over the first two days. I am looking forward to the weekend.”
First man in on the seven under par mark of 131 was Forsyth and the winner of the 2002 Carlsberg Malaysian Open on The European Tour had a fast beginning to his second round 65 to thank largely for that, birdieing the second and fourth and sandwiching an eagle 3 at the third in the middle.
“I got off to an absolute flier, it was just what I was looking for,” said the 31 year old from Paisley. “Four under after four holes, you are looking at goodness knows what and I must admit that the thought of a 59 did come into my head for a moment.
“I tried not to think too much about it and just tried to do what I was doing but I just dropped a couple of shots at the wrong time. I three-putted the 11th for bogey and I suppose that put paid to any hope of a 59.
“It was a little disappointing to only card a four under par round after that start but it was another solid performance so I am not going to complain too much.”
Joining him shortly afterwards was fellow Scot O’Hara who admitted he was exhausted after completing his second round 66, a round which contained four birdies and only one dropped shot at the short eighth where his tee shot found the greenside bunker and he failed to get up and down.
“I was due off pretty early on but because we had the hour and three quarter delay for fog this morning I actually didn’t start until after nine o’clock,” he said.
“The only problem with that was that by the time I teed off I’d hit about 200 balls or something like that. Therefore it was good to get back out and get started eventually when they said we were going to start.
“I don’t mind practising but I think maybe I overdid it a little bit today, especially when I was up at 5.30! But it all turned out okay so that’s the main thing.”
While the Scottish duo finished early in the day, Australian Rumford left it until almost fading light before posting his 66 to get to seven under par, a fine effort considering that his second round started with two consecutive dropped shots.
“I started off a bit shaky but after that I came back and steadied the ship with a few birdies from there and that helped give me momentum to move forward.
“I putted really well once again considering the greens late on in the afternoon were getting quite slow and bouncy. But I putted very nicely, made some good saves and also made some good putts for birdies too. It is only halfway I know, but it is good to be up there again.”
As with Thursday’s first round when there was a European Tour record nine players tied for the lead overnight, the logjam effect continued on the Roman Road course as 10 players tied for fifth place on six under par.
Amongst them was home favourite Bradley Dredge who carded a 66 and the 2005 US Open champion Michael Campbell who matched the Welshman’s score to show a welcome return to form.
While Campbell will be in the thick of the action over the weekend, two of the other pre-tournament favourites, double US Open champion Retief Goosen and defending champion Robert Karlsson will have to content themselves with watching the action on the television after both missed the cut which fell at one under par 137.
ALL THE SCORES FROM CELTIC MANOR
Par 138 (2 x 69).
Players from GB&I unless stated
130 Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 67 63.
131 Alastair Forsyth 66 65, Steven O'Hara 65 66, Brett Rumford (Aus) 65 66.
132 Gary Orr 65 67, Gregory Havret (Fra) 69 63, Paul Broadhurst 65 67, David Frost (SAf) 68 64, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 67 65, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 69 63, Bradley Dredge 66 66, Michael Campbell (NZ) 66 66, Nick Dougherty 69 63, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 65 67.
133 Stephen Gallacher 67 66, Matthew Zions (Aus) 66 67, Phillip Archer 68 65, Gary Murphy 68 65, Simon Khan 67 66, Paul Lawrie 65 68, Benn Barham 70 63, David Griffiths 68 65, Simon Thornton 69 64.
134 Richard Sterne (SAf) 67 67, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 65 69, Colin Montgomerie 70 64, James Kingston (SAf) 66 68, Oliver Wilson 66 68, Andrew Coltart 69 65, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 68 66, Liam Bond 66 68.
135 Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 66 69, Anton Haig (SAf) 68 67, Anders Hansen (Den) 70 65, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 65 70, Mattias Eliasson (Swe) 66 69, Mark Foster 67 68, Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned) 69 66, Peter Lawrie 66 69, Mardan Mamat (Sing) 71 64, Eirik Tage Johansen (Nor) 69 66, Miles Tunnicliff 70 65, Thomas Levet (Fra) 68 67, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 66 69, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 69 66, Kenneth Ferrie 71 64.
136 David Bransdon (Aus) 68 68, David Carter 68 68, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 68 68, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 69 67, Jesus Maria Arruti (Spa) 69 67, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 68 68, Kyron Sullivan 68 68, Garry Houston 67 69, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 72 64, James Heath 67 69, Tom Whitehouse 71 65.
137 Shiv Kapur (Ind) 68 69, Manuel Quiros (Spa) 70 67, Robert Rock 67 70, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 72 65, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 67 70, Steve Alker (NZ) 65 72, Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 66 71, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 69 68, Marcel Siem (Ger) 69 68, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 68 69, Henrik Nystrom (Swe) 70 67, Phillip Price 67 70, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 66 71, Simon Wakefield 69 68.
MISSED CUT
138 Andrew Raitt 69 69, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 70 68, Sam Walker 69 69, Sion Bebb 69 69, Richard McEvoy 70 68, Anthony Wall 71 67, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 73 65, Ian Garbutt 71 67, Oliver Fisher 70 68, Peter Senior (Aus) 70 68.
139 Gary Lockerbie 71 68, Sandy Lyle 71 68, Darren Fichardt (SAf) 71 68, Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 69 70, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 71 68, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 72 67, Gordon Brand jun 72 67, Marcus Higley 69 70, Liang Wen-chong (Chi) 69 70, Graeme Storm 69 70, Andrew Marshall 72 67, Matthew Richardson 69 70, Andrew Tampion (Aus) 68 71.
140 David Lynn 67 73, Sam Little 70 70, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 70 70, Carl Suneson (Spa) 72 68, Alexander Noren (Swe) 69 71, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 70 70, Christopher Hanell (Swe) 71 69, Lee Slattery 69 71, Ben Evans (am) 72 68, Richard Bland 73 67, Peter Hanson (Swe) 70 70, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 71 69, Sven Struver (Ger) 73 67, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 71 69, Alexandre Rocha (Bra) 69 71, Edward Rush 68 72.
141 Simon Dyson 73 68, Shaun Webster 68 73, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 70 71, Damien McGrane 72 69, Craig Smith 69 72, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 73 68, Mark Pilkington 73 68, Santiago Luna (Spa) 74 67.
142 Graeme McDowell 74 68, Ross Fisher 69 73, Terry Price (Aus) 69 73, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 72 70, David Park 69 73, Julien Guerrier (Fra) 69 73, Taichi Teshima (Jpn) 71 71, Jose Manuel Carriles (Spa) 73 69, Christian Nilsson (Swe) 72 70.
143 Steve Webster 73 70, Retief Goosen (SAf) 70 73, David Drysdale 71 72, Richard Finch 71 72, Matthew Millar (Aus) 72 71, Rhys Enoch (am) 75 68.
144 Scott Drummond 74 70, Ariel Canete (Arg) 71 73, Jonathan Lomas 72 72, Jamie Spence 71 73
145 Lee James 70 75, Adrien Mork (Fra) 78 67, Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 77 68, Peter Gustafsson (Swe) 73 72
146 Marc Warren 76 70, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 76 70, Birgir Hafthorsson (Ice) 73 73, Luis Claverie (Spa) 74 72.
147 Mark Litton 77 70.
148 Gary Emerson 73 75.
151 Gareth Davies 78 73, Francois Calmels (Fra) 75 76.
155 (x) Llewellyn Matthews (am) 78 77.
Ret: Barry Lane, Carlos Rodiles (Spa), Maarten Lafeber (Ned).
Withdrew: Thongchai Jaidee (Tha), Gary Marks, Chapchai Nirat (Tha)
Labels: Pro Men
posted by Colin |
See story on its own page | Friday, June 01, 2007
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