Omega European Masters in Switzerland
McIlroy loses half the lead - but he's
not complaining about a 71
FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE:
Nineteen year old Rory McIlroy no longer leads on his own, but he still has a great chance to become the youngest winner on The European Tour since Seve Ballesteros won the first of his record 50 titles.
Watching American football on television at 4am might not have been the greatest preparation for what lay ahead, but in tough conditions at the Omega European Masters the Northern Ireland youngster added a level par 71 to his brilliant opening 63.
Defending champion Brett Rumford was the player to close the three-stroke overnight gap, a second successive 67 putting the Australian on eight under alongside McIlroy at halfway.
After his lowest round as a professional - by three - it was inevitable McIlroy could not completely switch off back at his hotel, where he ended up watching television deep into the night.
"I just want to take it one step at a time, but I caught myself thinking about it last night and put the tennis on to take my mind off it," he said."Then I had to get up for a drink at about 4am and the New York Giants were playing the Washington Redskins, so I watched a bit of that."
He was prepared for the fact that he could not reproduce his opening day fireworks.
"It's always difficult to follow up such a low round with another one. I've learnt that before. You rarely see someone shoot 63-64, so that 71 was a pretty good effort."
He would be the third youngest winner in Tour history if he does take the first prize, just five days older than Ballesteros was at the 1976 Dutch Open.
Dale Hayes holds the record, with the South African aged only 18 when he lifted the 1971 Spanish Open.
Rumford could also be linked to Ballesteros on Sunday. The Spanish star was the last player to make a successful defence of the title in 1978.
Rumford said: “Conditions are getting tough. This is how it played at the Pro-Am and the greens dried out and the course changed completely from Wednesday to Thursday with all the rain. As we all know it only takes one day of good weather to get these greens reacting so differently.
"I guess this will be the day. The weekend will be a completely different. After the rain yesterday afternoon without the wind we got the better half of the draw and the scoring will be evident of that after today's play.”
Finland's Mikko Ilonen took over top spot at one stage during his afternoon round but bogeyed four of his last five holes to go back to five under and into a group which includes Ryder Cup Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez.
Joint third on seven under are Spain's Alejandro Canizares, Frenchman Jean-Francois Lucquin and Argentina's Juan Abbate, while Simon Dyson, Peter Lawrie and Frederik Andersson Hed are on six under.
Craig Lee, with a second-round 69 for 142, managed to join Gary Orr (71-138) among the qualifiers at 142 or better.
But the rest of the Tartan Army were eliminiated - Marc Warren on 143 despite a second-round 69, Peter Whiteford (70-145), David Drysdale (74-145) and Jamie McLeary (73-148).
Frenchman Gregory Havret, winner of the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles last Sunday, was also among those who missed the cut. He had a 75 for 145. Sic transit gloria!
SECOND-ROUND TOTALS
Par 142 (2 x 71)
134 Brett Rumford (Aus) 67 67, Rory McIlroy 63 71
135 Juan Abbate (Arg) 68 67, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 67 68, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 68 67
136 Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 69 67, Simon Dyson 69 67, Peter Lawrie 67 69
137 Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 69 68, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 67 70, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 71 66, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 69 68, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 71 66, Scott Barr (Aus) 69 68, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 68 69, Julien Clement (Swi) 69 68, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 67 70
138 Gary Orr 67 71, Julio Zapata (Arg) 66 72, Mark Foster 72 66
139 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 68 71, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 69 70, Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 69 70, Garry Houston 66 73, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 70 69, David Griffiths 70 69, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 67 72, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 69 70, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 70 69, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 71 68, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 68 71, Eduardo Romero (Arg) 71 68, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 69 70, Bradley Dredge 69 70
140 Francis Valera (Spa) 73 67, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 68 72, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 69 71, Peter Baker 70 70, Robert Dinwiddie 76 64, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 70 70, Robert Rock 72 68, Andrew Marshall 70 70, Tom Whitehouse 72 68, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 71 69, Benoit Teilleria (Fra) 71 69, Miles Tunnicliff 71 69, Ross McGowan 67 73
141 Steve Alker (Nzl) 71 70, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 70 71, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 73 68, Sven Struver (Ger) 72 69, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 68 73, Ariel Canete (Arg) 69 72, Santiago Luna (Spa) 70 71, Barry Lane 71 70
142 Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 72 70, Simon Griffiths 76 66, Pablo Martin (Spa) 71 71, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 74 68, Craig Lee 73 69, Hennie Otto (Rsa) 69 73, Jan Are Larsen (Nor) 71 71, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 70 72, Mattias Eliasson (Swe) 70 72, Paul Waring 71 71, Matthew Millar (Aus) 70 72, Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn) 71 71, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 73 69, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 70 72, Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 71 71, Ken Benz (Swi) 68 74, Florian Praegant (Aut) 72 70, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 70 72, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 72 70
MISSED THE CUT
143 Anders Hansen (Den) 71 72, Luis Claverie (Spa) 72 71, Benn Barham 74 69, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 70 73, Simon Wakefield 70 73, Marc Warren 74 69, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 71 72, David Higgins 73 70, Raphael Eyraud (Fra) 70 73, Henrik Nystrom (Swe) 70 73, Nicolas Sulzer (Swi) 70 73, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 69 74, Phillip Price 72 71, Kyron Sullivan 66 77, Simon Khan 73 70, Lee S James 70 73, Chao Li (Chn) 69 74
144 Martin Wiegele (Aut) 72 72, Chris Wood 73 71, John Mellor 72 72, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 73 71, Sion Bebb 78 66, Lee Slattery 76 68, Andre Bossert (Swi) 72 72, Alexander Noren (Swe) 74 70, Jamie Donaldson 70 74, Markus Brier (Aut) 77 67, Sam Little 77 67, Fredrik Svanberg (Swi) 72 72
145 Peter Whiteford 75 70, Stuart Manley 73 72, Paul Broadhurst 71 74, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 70 75, Kane Webber (USA) 75 70, Tadd Fujikawa (USA) 73 72, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 73 72, David Drysdale 71 74, Richard Finch 72 73, Gary Murphy 73 72, Gregory Havret (Fra) 70 75
146 Carl Suneson (Spa) 71 75, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 72 74, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 72 74
147 Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe) 73 74, Marco Soffietti (Ita) 73 74, Jonas Blixt (Swe) 77 70, Gareth Paddison (Nzl) 71 76, Phillip Archer 73 74, Marc Dobias (Swi) 75 72, Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 72 75, Manuel Quiros (Spa) 74 73
148 Pedro Linhart (Spa) 72 76, Jamie McLeary 75 73, Alan Bihan (Fra) 73 75, Marcel Siem (Ger) 77 71, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 70 78, Philip Golding 71 77, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 72 76
149 Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 74 75, Peter Fowler (Aus) 74 75, David Frost (Rsa) 75 74, Digvijay Singh (Ind) 73 76
150 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 77 73, Sam Walker 72 78, Anton Haig (Rsa) 69 81, Doug McGuigan 78 72, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 75 75
151 Gaurav Ghei (Ind) 73 78, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 77 74, Alessio Bruschi (Ita) 71 80, Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) 72 79, Johan Edfors (Swe) 72 79, Martin Rominger (Swi) 77 74
152 Tino Weiss (Swi) 75 77
154 Paolo Terreni (Ita) 82 72, Ivo Giner (Spa) 81 73
155 Vincent Cachera (Fra) 75 80
156 Nicolas Thommen (Swi) 74 82, Moritz Lampert (Ger) 79 77
157 Joakim Backstrom (Swe) 77 80, James Kamte (Rsa) 78 79
not complaining about a 71
FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE:
Nineteen year old Rory McIlroy no longer leads on his own, but he still has a great chance to become the youngest winner on The European Tour since Seve Ballesteros won the first of his record 50 titles.
Watching American football on television at 4am might not have been the greatest preparation for what lay ahead, but in tough conditions at the Omega European Masters the Northern Ireland youngster added a level par 71 to his brilliant opening 63.
Defending champion Brett Rumford was the player to close the three-stroke overnight gap, a second successive 67 putting the Australian on eight under alongside McIlroy at halfway.
After his lowest round as a professional - by three - it was inevitable McIlroy could not completely switch off back at his hotel, where he ended up watching television deep into the night.
"I just want to take it one step at a time, but I caught myself thinking about it last night and put the tennis on to take my mind off it," he said."Then I had to get up for a drink at about 4am and the New York Giants were playing the Washington Redskins, so I watched a bit of that."
He was prepared for the fact that he could not reproduce his opening day fireworks.
"It's always difficult to follow up such a low round with another one. I've learnt that before. You rarely see someone shoot 63-64, so that 71 was a pretty good effort."
He would be the third youngest winner in Tour history if he does take the first prize, just five days older than Ballesteros was at the 1976 Dutch Open.
Dale Hayes holds the record, with the South African aged only 18 when he lifted the 1971 Spanish Open.
Rumford could also be linked to Ballesteros on Sunday. The Spanish star was the last player to make a successful defence of the title in 1978.
Rumford said: “Conditions are getting tough. This is how it played at the Pro-Am and the greens dried out and the course changed completely from Wednesday to Thursday with all the rain. As we all know it only takes one day of good weather to get these greens reacting so differently.
"I guess this will be the day. The weekend will be a completely different. After the rain yesterday afternoon without the wind we got the better half of the draw and the scoring will be evident of that after today's play.”
Finland's Mikko Ilonen took over top spot at one stage during his afternoon round but bogeyed four of his last five holes to go back to five under and into a group which includes Ryder Cup Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez.
Joint third on seven under are Spain's Alejandro Canizares, Frenchman Jean-Francois Lucquin and Argentina's Juan Abbate, while Simon Dyson, Peter Lawrie and Frederik Andersson Hed are on six under.
Craig Lee, with a second-round 69 for 142, managed to join Gary Orr (71-138) among the qualifiers at 142 or better.
But the rest of the Tartan Army were eliminiated - Marc Warren on 143 despite a second-round 69, Peter Whiteford (70-145), David Drysdale (74-145) and Jamie McLeary (73-148).
Frenchman Gregory Havret, winner of the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles last Sunday, was also among those who missed the cut. He had a 75 for 145. Sic transit gloria!
SECOND-ROUND TOTALS
Par 142 (2 x 71)
134 Brett Rumford (Aus) 67 67, Rory McIlroy 63 71
135 Juan Abbate (Arg) 68 67, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 67 68, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 68 67
136 Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 69 67, Simon Dyson 69 67, Peter Lawrie 67 69
137 Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 69 68, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 67 70, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 71 66, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 69 68, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 71 66, Scott Barr (Aus) 69 68, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 68 69, Julien Clement (Swi) 69 68, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 67 70
138 Gary Orr 67 71, Julio Zapata (Arg) 66 72, Mark Foster 72 66
139 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 68 71, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 69 70, Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 69 70, Garry Houston 66 73, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 70 69, David Griffiths 70 69, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 67 72, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 69 70, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 70 69, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 71 68, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 68 71, Eduardo Romero (Arg) 71 68, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 69 70, Bradley Dredge 69 70
140 Francis Valera (Spa) 73 67, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 68 72, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 69 71, Peter Baker 70 70, Robert Dinwiddie 76 64, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 70 70, Robert Rock 72 68, Andrew Marshall 70 70, Tom Whitehouse 72 68, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 71 69, Benoit Teilleria (Fra) 71 69, Miles Tunnicliff 71 69, Ross McGowan 67 73
141 Steve Alker (Nzl) 71 70, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 70 71, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 73 68, Sven Struver (Ger) 72 69, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 68 73, Ariel Canete (Arg) 69 72, Santiago Luna (Spa) 70 71, Barry Lane 71 70
142 Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 72 70, Simon Griffiths 76 66, Pablo Martin (Spa) 71 71, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 74 68, Craig Lee 73 69, Hennie Otto (Rsa) 69 73, Jan Are Larsen (Nor) 71 71, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 70 72, Mattias Eliasson (Swe) 70 72, Paul Waring 71 71, Matthew Millar (Aus) 70 72, Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn) 71 71, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 73 69, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 70 72, Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 71 71, Ken Benz (Swi) 68 74, Florian Praegant (Aut) 72 70, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 70 72, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 72 70
MISSED THE CUT
143 Anders Hansen (Den) 71 72, Luis Claverie (Spa) 72 71, Benn Barham 74 69, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 70 73, Simon Wakefield 70 73, Marc Warren 74 69, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 71 72, David Higgins 73 70, Raphael Eyraud (Fra) 70 73, Henrik Nystrom (Swe) 70 73, Nicolas Sulzer (Swi) 70 73, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 69 74, Phillip Price 72 71, Kyron Sullivan 66 77, Simon Khan 73 70, Lee S James 70 73, Chao Li (Chn) 69 74
144 Martin Wiegele (Aut) 72 72, Chris Wood 73 71, John Mellor 72 72, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 73 71, Sion Bebb 78 66, Lee Slattery 76 68, Andre Bossert (Swi) 72 72, Alexander Noren (Swe) 74 70, Jamie Donaldson 70 74, Markus Brier (Aut) 77 67, Sam Little 77 67, Fredrik Svanberg (Swi) 72 72
145 Peter Whiteford 75 70, Stuart Manley 73 72, Paul Broadhurst 71 74, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 70 75, Kane Webber (USA) 75 70, Tadd Fujikawa (USA) 73 72, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 73 72, David Drysdale 71 74, Richard Finch 72 73, Gary Murphy 73 72, Gregory Havret (Fra) 70 75
146 Carl Suneson (Spa) 71 75, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 72 74, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 72 74
147 Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe) 73 74, Marco Soffietti (Ita) 73 74, Jonas Blixt (Swe) 77 70, Gareth Paddison (Nzl) 71 76, Phillip Archer 73 74, Marc Dobias (Swi) 75 72, Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 72 75, Manuel Quiros (Spa) 74 73
148 Pedro Linhart (Spa) 72 76, Jamie McLeary 75 73, Alan Bihan (Fra) 73 75, Marcel Siem (Ger) 77 71, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 70 78, Philip Golding 71 77, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 72 76
149 Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 74 75, Peter Fowler (Aus) 74 75, David Frost (Rsa) 75 74, Digvijay Singh (Ind) 73 76
150 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 77 73, Sam Walker 72 78, Anton Haig (Rsa) 69 81, Doug McGuigan 78 72, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 75 75
151 Gaurav Ghei (Ind) 73 78, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 77 74, Alessio Bruschi (Ita) 71 80, Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) 72 79, Johan Edfors (Swe) 72 79, Martin Rominger (Swi) 77 74
152 Tino Weiss (Swi) 75 77
154 Paolo Terreni (Ita) 82 72, Ivo Giner (Spa) 81 73
155 Vincent Cachera (Fra) 75 80
156 Nicolas Thommen (Swi) 74 82, Moritz Lampert (Ger) 79 77
157 Joakim Backstrom (Swe) 77 80, James Kamte (Rsa) 78 79
Labels: EUROPEAN TOUR
posted by Colin |
See story on its own page | Friday, September 05, 2008
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home