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| November 23, 2002 | Saturday | Ramazan 17, 1423 |
Unknown Yokoo too hot for big guns
MIYAZAKI (Japan), Nov 22: World number one Tiger Woods fired a three-under-par 68 but missed a handful of birdie putts to finish eight strokes off the lead after the second round of the $1.65 million Dunlop Phoenix tournament on Friday.
Meanwhile, Sergio Garcia birdied three of the last four holes in a 68 and Justin Rose carded a 69 to reach the clubhouse on seven-under-par 135, four strokes adrift of halfway leader Kaname Yokoo at the par-71 Phoenix Country Club in Miyazaki.
Yokoo, who played in the U.S. this year but failed to retain his tour card for 2003, produced a superb bogey-free round of 65 to improve to 11-under-par and leave Woods with some work to do over the weekend.
The Masters and U.S. Open champion could have closed the gap on Yokoo but allowed makeable birdie putts to slip by on the ninth, 11th and 12th holes in a bogey-free round that never really caught fire.
A chip-in eagle on the par-five fourth — where Woods hit a glorious three-wood from the fairway rough to the front edge and chipped in with a sand-wedge — had briefly threatened to spark a charge from the American.
But Woods, making his third appearance in Japan after the 1998 Casio World Open and the World Cup of golf last year, was forced to save par with a breaking 10-foot putt on the eighth and had to wait until the 16th for his only other birdie.
Leading second round scores (Japanese unless stated):
131 Kaname Yokoo 66 65
135 Justin Rose (Britain) 66 69, Sergio Garcia (Spain) 67 68, Zaw Moe (Myanmar) 68 67
136 Darren Clarke (Britain) 64 72, Tsukasa Watanabe 66 70, Hiroyuki Fujita 68 68, Nozomi Kawahara 68 68
138 David Duval (U.S.) 69 69, Shingo Katayama 70 68, Toshimitsu Izawa 71 67, Kim Jong-duck (South Korea) 68 70, Tateo Ozaki 68 70, Hirofumi Miyase 67 71, Ho Suk-ho (South Korea) 67 71, Masayuki Kawamura 72 66, Nobuhito Sato 70 68, Naomichi Ozaki 67 71
139 Tiger Woods (U.S.) 71 68, Lee Westwood (Britain) 71 68, Yasuharu Imano 70 69, Katsumasa Miyamoto 68 71, Masashi Ozaki 67 72
DUTCHMAN SURGES AHEAD
TAOYUAN Taiwan: Little-known Dutchman Maarten Lafeber surged into a commanding four-stroke lead at the halfway stage of the 1.5-million-dollar Asian Open here Friday.
Lafeber breezed to his second straight six-under-par 66 in blustery conditions at Ta Shee Golf and Country Club, his 12-under 132 aggregate putting him in the driver’s seat in the elite field.
European Ryder Cup star Padraig Harrington could have been much closer but stumbled on his back nine to card a 70, while South African Trevor Immelman joined the Irishman in second place with a flawless 67.
American Andrew Pitts and Australian Adrian Percey of Australia are equal fourth on 137.
Leading second round scores:
132 - Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 66-66
136 - Padraig Harrington (Irl) 66-70, Trevor Immelman (RSA) 69-67
137 - Andrew Pitts (USA) 67-70, Adrian Percey (Aus) 68-69
138 - Arjun Singh (Ind) 68-70, Kevin Na (Kor) 71-67, James Kingston (RSA) 68-70, Simon Yates (Sco) 67-71, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 71-67
139 - Barry Lane (Eng) 70-69, Soren Hansen (Den) 71-68
140 - Yeh Wei-Tze (Tpe) 69-71, Ian Woosnam (Wal) 71-69, Sam Torrance (Sco) 73-67, Sven Struver (Ger) 66-74, Anthony Kang (Kor) 69-71, Jyoti Randhawa (Iind) 65-75
141 - Tobias Dier (Ger) 71-70, Kim Felton (Aus) 69-72, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 67-74, Simon Hurd (Eng) 71-70, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 71-70, Kenneth Ferrie (Eng) 71-70, Tony Johnstone (Zim) 71-70, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 71-70, Rick Gibson (Can) 72-69
142 - Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 69-73, Kang Wook-soon (Kor) 74-68, Henrik Nystrom (Swe) 67-75
HOWELL TAKES LEAD
MELBOURNE: Charles Howell III shot a five-under-par 65 to hold a one-stroke advantage after the rescheduled first round of the A$1.5 million (US$0.84 million) Australian Open Friday.
The American carded six birdies and one bogey at the Victoria Golf Club to lead a group of five players comprising U.S. PGA champion Rich Beem and Australia’s Craig Parry, Steve Allan, Geoff Ogilvy and Chris Downes.
Leading second round scores:
65 Charles Howell III (U.S.)
66 Rich Beem (U.S.), Chris Downes, Craig Parry, Steve Allan, Geoff Ogilvy
67 Adam Crawford, Wayne Grady, Jens Nilsson (Sweden), Stuart Appleby
68 Andrew Tschudin, a-James Nitties, Gavin Coles, Westley Rudel, John Senden
69 Steven Conran, Greg Turner (New Zealand), Scott Laycock, Michael Long (New Zealand), Peter Lonard, Steven Alker (New Zealand), David McKenzie, Tommy de Wit, Mal Baker, Nick O’Hern, James McLean, Adam Scott, Peter Senior.—Reuters/AFP
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