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| February 4, 2006 | Saturday | Muharram 5, 1427 |
Golf: Hansen, Goosen share lead
DUBAI, Feb 3: Tiger Woods was left bemoaning what might have been in the second round of the Dubai Desert Classic on Friday as Denmark’s Anders Hansen and South Africa’s Retief Goosen leapfrogged ahead of him to lead the tournament at the halfway stage.
Woods shot a six-under 66 but still left the Majlis Course grim-faced with frustration.
He started with an eagle and was six under after just seven holes but his aggressive play later had a price to pay with two visits to the water that prevented a score in the low 60’s and possibly a course record.
Playing later in the day, Hansen, who had struggled so far this year, reeled off nine birdies for a 63 that left him 13-under for the tournament, two ahead of Woods.
First round joint leader Retief Goosen opened with a bogey but hit back with four birdies before finishing off with an eagle at par-five 18th for a 67 to go with his opening 64.
The South African explained that he had slept badly the night before after hearing that one of his children and a nannie had been injured in a car crash near London in which both vehicles were write-offs.
“Fortunately no-one was seriously hurt,” said the two-times US Open winner who turned 37 on the day.
Level with Woods on 11-under were England’s Nick Dougherty who had a 66 and Australia’s Richard Green who had a 69.
Playing partner Henrik Stenson, the in-form Swede who is being tipped for great things, could not stay with him.
Starting level with the American, last week’s winner in Qatar watched on helpless as the gap between the two big-hitters widened rapidly. But he hung on to shoot a 70, leaving him six strokes off the pace.
Hansen, finding himself in the midst of the furore in Muslim countries against Danish newspaper cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, was three under at the turn and then turned on full power to come home with six more birdies on the back nine.
Without a win since his debut title at the 2002 British PGA Championship, the 35-year-old Hanson said he would look forward to a possible first pairing at the weekend with Woods.
Defending champion Ernie Els stayed in touch with a 66 including an eagle at the last to stand just three strokes off the pace, but there was no respite for European No.1 Colin Montgomerie who had a lacklustre 74 to miss the cut at four over par.
The Scot had arrived at the tournament only at the last moment with no time to prepare after staying on back home to finalise his divorce settlement with wife Eimear.
Leading second round scores:
131 - Anders Hansen 68-63, Retief Goosen 64-67
133 - Nick Dougherty 67-66, Richard Green 64-69, Tiger Woods 67-66
134 - Ernie Els 68-66, Jamie Donaldson 64-70
135 - Niclas Fasth 67-68, Marc Cayeux 69-66, Peter Lawrie 69-66, Soren Hansen 70-65
136 - Johan Edfors 69-67, Miguel Angel Jimenez 69-67, Bradley Dredge 70-66, Darren Clarke 68-68, Paul Casey 67-69, Damien McGrane 68-68
137 - Ricardo Gonzalez 69-68, Henrik Stenson 67-70, Emanuele Canonica 69-68, Ross Bain 66-71
138 - Andrew Oldcorn 71-67, Richard Sterne 69-69, Paul Broadhurst 69-69, Stuart Little 69-69, Robert Karlsson 71-67
139 - Stephen Gallacher 70-69, Nick O’Hern 67-72, Thomas Bjorn 69-70, Barry Lane 68-71, Lee Westwood 68-71, Phillip Price 69-70, Jyoti Randhawa 71-68, David Howell 70-69, Ian Poulter 72-67, Raphael Jacquelin 68-71
FBR Open
SCOTTSDALE (Arizona): Leading first-round scores here on Thursday in the 5.2 million-dollar FBR Open (Play halted by darkness with four players on course, round to be completed on Friday. USA unless noted):
65 - Alex Cejka, Steve Lowery
66 - James Driscoll, Brent Geiberger, Jerry Smith, Bo Van Pelt
67 - Henrik Bjornstad, Mark Calcavecchia, Lucas Glover, JJ Henry, Brandt Jobe, Thomas Levet, Andrew Magee, Arron Oberholser, Joe Ogilvie, Geoff Ogilvy, Paul Stankowski, Kirk Triplett
68 - John Holmes, Ryan Palmer, Rod Pampling, Scott Piercy, John Rollins, Jeff Sluman, David Toms
69 - Arjun Atwal, Brian Davis, Nathan Green, Trevor Immelman, Justin Rose, Rory Sabbatini (RSA), John Senden, Hidemichi Tanaka
70 - Robert Allenby, Carlos Franco, Sergio Garcia, Fredrik Jacobson, Richard S. Johnson, Shigeki Maruyama, Jose Maria Olazabal, Jesper Parnevik.—Agencies
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