Thai holes eagle pitch to lead with four holes to play

NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY THE ASIAN TOUR
Kuala Lumpur: Thailand ’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat held a one-shot lead at the weather-hit Maybank Malaysian Open today, thanks to a sensational holed pitch for an eagle 3.
The former world junior champion jumped into pole position after negotiating 14 holes of his second round in five-under-par at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club to lead the US$2 million event on nine-under-par. He still has four holes to play to complete his second round and is one of 58 players who will do so at first light on Saturday morning (local time).
A shot back was Spaniard Alejandro Canizares, who was amongst those lucky enough to finish his round in 69 for a two-day total of eight-under-par 136. Asian Tour stalwart Angelo Que of the Philippines and Denmark ’s Soren Hansen were a further stroke back on 137 after returning identical 67s in the morning session.
Malaysian duo Danny Chia (71) and M. Sasidaran (73) continued to fly the Malaysian flag, lying on 142 in the co-sanctioned Asian Tour and European Tour tournament.
Following a lightning storm which stopped play for 2hr 20min in the afternoon, 58 players failed to complete the second round and will return on Saturday morning (7.45am) to finish their remaining holes.
Korean star K.J. Choi kept himself in the hunt for a second Malaysian title in five months where he is seven under for the tournament after playing 16 holes in two-under, which included an eagle 2. Two-time Maybank Malaysian Open winner Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand was a further stroke back where he was even par through 16 holes as well.
Kiradech, 20, rose to the top of the leaderboard when he holed his third shot from 30 yards out at the par five fifth hole to give himself another shot of earning his first Asian Tour victory. Putting in new clubs in his bag seems to have paid off handsomely.
“I’m very happy. I was very lucky on that eagle. It wasn’t quite dark and one of my flight mates wanted to stop but I wanted to continue and chipped in for eagle. Finishing with an eagle was great,” said Kiradech, who finished fourth at the season-o pen ing Asian Tour International on home soil after leading into the final round.
Kiradech knows he must maintain his “A” game to finally prevail on the Asian Tour. “This time is much different because this tournament is bigger with a lot of top players like Thongchai. But I need to keep going and concentrate hard. I wasn’t playing good before playing here. I changed to new clubs before the Asian Tour International and didn’t feel comfortable with it. I changed to another set of clubs before coming into this tournament.”
Canizares, whose father Jose Maria was a member of Europe ’s victorious Ryder Cup team on four occasions, put himself in position to challenge for a second career victory following his lone success at the 2006 Russian Open .
“I am pretty pleased with that, especially considering I finished in the dark. I couldn’t see anything and I made a pretty good par putt. I pulled my second shot into the last and was in the semi-rough. I decided to putt it and I should never have done that. I left myself a horrible eight foot putt for par, downhill and on a nasty line but I almost shut my eyes and just hit it – thankfully it went in,” said the Spaniard.
A two-time winner on the Asian Tour, Que is hoping to break the bank and land what would arguably be his biggest career victory yet. He triumphed in a domestic tournament last month and challenged for the Asian Tour International.
“I have been hitting it good for the past two days but holed more putts today. Everything pretty much worked out fine except for one hole (where he bogeyed the 12th hole). Five-under on this course, and in this heat is good,” said Que, who started strongly with four consecutive birdies from the third hole.
Choi was happy to stay in touch with the leaders.
“I’ll try and go for birdies. If I’m able to stick to that game plan, I won’t go wrong,” said the South Korean star, who is a seven time US PGA Tour winner.
“No problem for me at all (in regards to the weather disruptions). I’m used to this sort of delays,” he added.
LEADING SECOND-ROUND TOTALS (to be updated)
Par 144 (2x72)
*58 players still to complete second rounds early Saturday morning (local time).
136 Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 67 69
137 Soren Hansen (Den) 70 67, Angelo Que (Phi) 70 67
138 Brett Rumford (Aus) 71 67, Johan Edfors (Swe) 69 69
139 Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 69 70
140 Jason Knutzon (USA) 73 67
141 Stephen Gallacher 72 69, Peter Lawrie 69 72, Chinnarat Phadungsil (Tha) 67 74, Matthew Griffin (Aus) 72 69
142 M Sasidaran (Mal) 69 73, Marco Ruiz (Par) 71 71, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 68 74, Scott Strange (Aus) 69 73, Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha) 70 72, Danny Chia (Mal) 71 71, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 77 65
143 Rahil Gangjee (Ind) 68 75, Gary Boyd 72 71, Sang-moon Bae (Kor) 69 74, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 72 71, Unho Park (Aus) 70 73
144 Anthony Kang (USA) 73 71, Juvic Pagunsan (Phi) 74 70, David Gleeson (Aus) 71 73, Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 72 72, Antonio Lascuna (Phi) 72 72, Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) 73 71, Hyung-sung Kim (Kor) 70 74, Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 73 71
PROJECTED CUT: 144 OR BETTER NEEDED TO QUALIFY
145 Joost Luiten (Ned) 72 73, Mars Pucay (Phi) 75 70, Steven O'Hara 74 71, Chris Rodgers 70 75, Julien Quesne (Fra) 74 71, Ross Bain 68 77, Mark Purser (Nzl) 74 71, Simon Khan 71 74, Anthony Wall 74 71, C Muniyappa (Ind) 73 72, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 75 70, James Kamte (Rsa) 74 71, Shingo Katayama (Jpn) 76 69
146 Sam Hutsby 75 71, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 73 73, Mohd Hisyam Abdul Majid (Mal) 77 69, Himmat Singh Rai (Ind) 73 73, Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 75 71, Adam Blyth (Aus) 74 72
147 Gary Lockerbie 71 76, Chris Wood 75 72, Andrew Tampion (Aus) 75 72, Thammanoon Srirot (Tha) 74 73, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 73 74, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 72 75, Udorn Duangdecha (Tha) 77 70
148 John Parry 77 71, Peter Whiteford 73 75, Kwanchai Tannin (Hkg) 77 71, Daisuke Maruyama (Jpn) 76 72, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 74 74, Carl Suneson (Spa) 75 73, Rick Kulacz (Aus) 75 73, Sam Little 76 72, Joong Kyung Mo (Kor) 77 71
149 Andrew Butterfield 74 75, Mohd Iszaimi Ismail (Mal) 76 73, S Sivachandran (Mal) 76 73, George Coetzee (Rsa) 70 79, Miles Tunnicliff 72 77
150 Darren Clarke 73 77, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 74 76
151 Fredrik Ohlsson (Swe) 76 75, Gavin Green (Mal) 75 76
152 Danny Lee (Nzl) 76 76, Marcus Both (Aus) 79 73, Iain Steel (Mal) 78 74, Richard McEvoy 75 77, Akhmal Tarmizee Mohd Nazari (Mal) 79 73
153 Periasamy Gunasagaran (Mal) 75 78, Ted Oh (Kor) 73 80
154 Rashid Ismail Md (Mal) 76 78
155 Mohd Shukree Othman (Mal) 76 79
156 Nicholas Fung (Mal) 78 78, Kodai Ichihara (Jpn) 78 78
157 Gary Murphy 78 79
158 Abei Tam (Mal) 77 81
160 Andrew Coltart 76 84
162 Chris Gane 83 79
Retired: Simon Griffiths, Lin Wen-Tang (Tpe), Hwang Inn-Choon (Kor), David Howell
Disqualified: Jamie Elson
Withdrew: Jyoti Randhawa (Ind), Rafa Echenique (Arg)