Nick Marsh, Paul Howard in top 10 at halfway 

in Aussie Amateur Masters at Melbourne

 

FROM GOLF AUSTRALIA WEBSITE
by Mark Hayes @ Royal Melbourne

Many before Zach Murray have come a cropper on Royal Melbourne West’s brutal pair of closing holes.
But today, as many in the Australian Master of the Amateurs field bent if not broke in the sapping heat, Murray stayed ice cool to make back-to-back closing birdies to nab the halfway lead in imperious style at six under par.
Murray, 17, was one of a handful of Victorians who adapted best in the blustery northerly breeze that can make Royal such a demanding beast.
English match-play champion Nick Marsh from Huddersfield (73-69 for 142) and South American amateur championship title-holder Paul Howard from Southport and Ainsdale (69-73 for 142) are sharing seventh place.
 English stroke-play title-holder Ben Stow from Rushmere GC, Wiltshire (75-75 for 150) is lying T64 at the halfway stage.
The wind made the already slick greens even quicker, bringing any misplayed putt to grief and leaving several of the big names in the field a long way from the lead.
Bendigo’s Lucas Herbert, the world No.5, had no luck with the putter and ended with a 76 to drop to one over 145
The world No.4 and No.8 players, American Will Zalatoris and Canadian Corey Conners respectively, matched each other again with 71s to be one under 143 and still in the mix.
But the day belonged to Murray, of Wodonga, whose impressively calm demeanour helped him overcome some late bogeys to play two stellar approaches to holes that gobbled up many of his peers.
He cut an eight-iron to 1.5m to a tight front pin on the 17^th and then almost holed another eight-iron to a testing back-right pin on the closing hole to erase the damage, particularly of a par putt that defied physics to lip out on the rugged 16^th.
“I was solid for first 13 or 14 holes, then hit a poor drive on 15 that cost me a bogey and then couldn’t get up and down on 16,” Murray said after his second consecutive 69.
“But I kept cool and hit two good shots in on those last holes – they were always going to be very tough and so to finish birdie-birdie, I can’t ask for much better.
“I definitely picked up a couple of shots (on the field) there. I was trying to play smart shots and let the greens help work the ball towards the hole, so it worked out well.”

SECOND ROUND LEADERBOARD
Par 144 (2x72)

	Latest	R1	R2
1	Zach Murray  0	69	69				138
2	FRAZER DROOP  0	68	71				139
3	Andrew Schonewille  0	68	71				139
4	David Snyder  0	70	70				140
5	Cory Crawford  0	71	69				140
6	Ben Eccles  0	74	66				140
7	Darcy Brereton  -1	68	74				142
8	Simon Viitakangas  0	69	73				142
9	Paul Howard  (ENGLAND)  0	69	73				142
10	Chieh-Po Lee  0	70	72				142
11	Jake McLeod  0	71	71				142
12	Fidel Concepcion  0	72	70				142
13	Nick Marsh (ENGLAND)	73	69				142
14	Jackson Dick  0	69	74				143
15	David Micheluzzi  0	71	72				143
16	Corey Conners  0	71	72				143
17	Will Zalatoris  0	72	71				143
18	Taylor James MacDonald  0	73	70				143
19	Takashi Ogiso  0	73	70				143
20	Luke Toomey  0	69	75				144
21	Grant Booth  0	69	75				144
22	Tim Hyland  0	70	74				144
23	Bryson DeChambeau  0	70	74				144
24	Abdul Hadi  0	72	72				144
25	Brian Campbell  0	73	71				144
26	Jonathan Ke-Jun Woo  0	69	76				145
27	Daniel Gale  0	70	75				145
28	Nicholas Coxon  0	70	75				145
29	Troy Moses  0	72	73				145
30	Kiran Day  0	72	73				145
31	Kade McBride  0	74	71				145
32	Lucas Herbert  0	76	69				145
33	Ryan Chisnall  0	70	76				146
34	Ryan Ruffels  0	72	74				146
35	Harrison Endycott  0	72	74				146
36	Ren Okazaki  0	73	73				146
37	Naoyuki Kataoka  0	74	72				146
38	Juan Diego Plasencia  0	74	72				146
39	Dylan Perry  0	75	71				146
40	Jerome NG  0	75	71				146
41	Min Woo Lee  0	71	76				147
42	Tyler Hodge  0	71	76				147
43	Wei-Lun Wang  0	71	76				147
44	James Beale  0	73	74				147
45	Sam Daley  0	73	74				147
46	William Howard  0	73	74				147
47	James Bannan  0	74	73				147
48	Antonio Murdaca  0	75	72				147
49	Jack Sullivan  0	76	71				147
50	Tianlang Guan  0	77	70				147
51	JACK WILLIAMS  0	70	78				148
52	Tom Stephens  0	71	77				148
53	DALE BRANDT-RICHARDS  0	73	75				148
54	Johnson Poh  0	73	75				148
55	Sam Rawlings  0	74	74				148
56	Brayden Petersen  0	74	74				148
57	Chun-An Yu  0	75	73				148
58	Ruben Sondjaja  0	75	73				148
59	Jarryd Felton  0	75	73				148
60	Kevin Yuan  0	72	77				149
61	Thomas Power Horan  0	73	76				149
62	Blake Windred  0	76	73				149
63	Cameron Davis  0	77	72				149
64	Ben Stow  (ENGLAND)	75	75				150
65	Shae Wools-Cobb  0	79	71				150
66	Camilo Mexsen  0	73	78				151
67	Tae Koh  0	74	77				151
68	Damon Stephenson  0	74	77				151
69	Anthony Quayle  0	75	76				151
70	Perry Xin  0	75	76				151
71	Brett Coletta  0	78	73				151
72	Qi Wen Wong  0	74	78				152
73	Travis Smyth  0	76	76				152
74	Anthony Marchesani  0	78	75				153
75	Greogory Foo  0	77	77				154
76	Gordon Neale  0	75	80				155
77	Jimmy Mullen  0	80	75				155
78	Blake Proverbs  0	78	84				162