Frenchman, Mike Lorenzo-Vera, has opened up a three-shot lead at the season-ending DP World Tour Championship Dubai, putting a gap of three shots between he and Spain’s Jon Rahm and England’s Tommy Fleetwood.
Lorenzo-Vera, who played alongside World Number Two Rory McIlroy, opened his second round with back-to-back birdies on his way to carding a three under par round of 69 in the eighth and final Rolex Series event of 2019.
He had briefly held a five shot lead on the back nine after his sixth birdie of the day on the 14th hole, but while the 34 year old dropped shots on the 15th and 18th holes to finish on 12 under par at Jumeirah Golf Estates, he remains in pole position to win the $3million first prize – the richest in tournament golf.
Ryder Cup players Fleetwood and Rahm, both of whom are bidding to overhaul Race to Dubai leader Bernd Wiesberger, are both on nine under par after respective rounds of 68 and 69.
Rahm had double bogeyed the eighth hole and was two over par heading to the ninth tee, but the Spaniard birdied that hole and picked up four more shots on the back nine, including an eagle on the last, to share second place with Fleetwood, who posted his seventh birdie of the day on the final hole.
Austrian Wiesberger carded 17 pars and just the solitary birdie on the 11th hole for a round of 71. He lies nine shots off the pace in a four-way tie for 13th position on three under par, meaning that as it stands, Fleetwood, who won last week’s Rolex Series event, the Nedbank Golf Challenge Hosted by Gary Player, would win the Race to Dubai.
Four-time Major Champion McIlroy double bogeyed the sixth hole in his two over par round of 74, but the Northern Irishman remains a threat six shots back in a share of fifth place on six under par, with the DP World Tour Championship, the Rolex Series and the Race to Dubai all set for a fascinating finale this weekend.
Jason Scrivener is one of two Australians to have made it into the select field of 50 and he finds himself in 20th place at 1 under, while Scott Hend is in 48th place at 7 over.
SCORES
Su Oh’s late season form continues in Florida
Su Oh has continued her recent solid run of form on the LPGA Tour and finds herself alone in 5th place at the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Naples in Florida.
Oh added a second round of 67 to her opening 69 and although trailing the current leader, Sei Young Kim, by four shots she is just two shots out of second place.
“It’s really nice,” said Oh when asked about her improving form late in the season. “I hit the ball really well the last two days. Probably not that great on the front nine yesterday, just scrambled well. I just played solid, really. Just made the most out of my opportunities.
“It’s kind of an annoying 6 on that par-5. Didn’t really do anything that crazy, but sometimes you just walk off with a 6 and try and make it up. Yeah, overall I played really solid the last two days.
Between Oh and Kim are Germany’s Caroline Masson, Brooke Henderson and the now ever present Nelly Korda.
Katherine Kirk is 26th, Minjee Lee 42rd and Hannah Green 49th.
Lorenzo-Vera bursts clear in Dubai
Frenchman, Mike Lorenzo-Vera, has opened up a three-shot lead at the season-ending DP World Tour Championship Dubai, putting a gap of three shots between he and Spain’s Jon Rahm and England’s Tommy Fleetwood.
Lorenzo-Vera, who played alongside World Number Two Rory McIlroy, opened his second round with back-to-back birdies on his way to carding a three under par round of 69 in the eighth and final Rolex Series event of 2019.
He had briefly held a five shot lead on the back nine after his sixth birdie of the day on the 14th hole, but while the 34 year old dropped shots on the 15th and 18th holes to finish on 12 under par at Jumeirah Golf Estates, he remains in pole position to win the $3million first prize – the richest in tournament golf.
Ryder Cup players Fleetwood and Rahm, both of whom are bidding to overhaul Race to Dubai leader Bernd Wiesberger, are both on nine under par after respective rounds of 68 and 69.
Rahm had double bogeyed the eighth hole and was two over par heading to the ninth tee, but the Spaniard birdied that hole and picked up four more shots on the back nine, including an eagle on the last, to share second place with Fleetwood, who posted his seventh birdie of the day on the final hole.
Austrian Wiesberger carded 17 pars and just the solitary birdie on the 11th hole for a round of 71. He lies nine shots off the pace in a four-way tie for 13th position on three under par, meaning that as it stands, Fleetwood, who won last week’s Rolex Series event, the Nedbank Golf Challenge Hosted by Gary Player, would win the Race to Dubai.
Four-time Major Champion McIlroy double bogeyed the sixth hole in his two over par round of 74, but the Northern Irishman remains a threat six shots back in a share of fifth place on six under par, with the DP World Tour Championship, the Rolex Series and the Race to Dubai all set for a fascinating finale this weekend.
Jason Scrivener is one of two Australians to have made it into the select field of 50 and he finds himself in 20th place at 1 under, while Scott Hend is in 48th place at 7 over.
SCORES
Japan’s Dunlop Phoenix reaches halfway stage
Brad Kennedy- four from the lead – file
Two of the Japan Tour’s most dominant players share the halfway lead at the Dunlop Phoenix Tournament in Miyazaki in southern Japan, Yuta Ikeda and Shugo Imahira at 5 under and ahead by one over Jung Gon Hwang and the impressive American rookie Collin Morikawa.
Ikeda has won 21 events on the Japan Tour in the last ten years, the last of those coming earlier this year when winning the Gate to the Open Mizuno Open while Imahira led the money list in 2018 and is again leading in 2019.
At 2 under par and just three from the lead is yet another exciting American in Cameron Champ who we will see in Australia later in the year when he competes at the Australian PGA Championship.
The talk of the day however was the great recovery from an opening hole quintuple bogey by former champion Hideki Matsuyama. Matsuyama began the event with an opening 66 on Thursday but he would open with a five over par 9 on day two. He recovered from the shock to record a round of 75 to be at 1 under and just four shots from the lead.
Brad Kennedy leads the Australians in a share of 13th place at 1 under and, like Matsuyama, four from the lead, Anthony Quayle is 1 over, with Brendan Jones the next best at 4 over.
SCORES
Jake McLeod regains European Tour status
Queensland’s Jake McLeod will get a second opportunity at the European Tour in 2020 after finishing in a tie for 13th place at the Final Stage of Q School completed this morning in Tarragona in Spain.
The 25 year old, who completed his first season in Europe in 2019 after winning the PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit in 2018, was the only Australian to have secured one of the 25 cards on offer for next season.
McLeod’s best finish on the European Tour in 2019 was when 8th at the Portugal Masters in early November, that being his only top ten.
McLeod finished the 108 holes at the Lumine Golf Club at 14 under par and in 15th place after the rundown had been finalised, but he was just three shots from missing out on a card altogether so he needed to remain vigilant throughout his final round of 70, two late birdies providing the comfort zone for a return to the European Tour.
The news was not so good for several other Australians who had made the 72 hole cut in the event.
Perth’s Jarrod Felton missed out on earning his first European Tour card by an agonising one shot despite a final round of 66, unable to pick up the one birdie he needed over the closing few holes. He will secure some European Tour starts in lesser events and will have status on the European Challenge Tour.
Dimi Papadatos was 65th and Deyen Lawson 72nd, both having eligibility for the European Challenge Tour in 2020.
Scrivener and Hend make Dubai finale
The winner Tommy Fleetwood – Getty Images
Perth’s Jason Scrivener has secured his biggest cheque as a professional and gained access to next week’s season ending DP World Tour Championship Dubai with an impressive share of 3rd place at the Nedbank Challenge at Sun City in South Africa.
Scrivener earned a cheque for nearly $A550,000 after his final round of 70 was completed with a stunning 30-foot swinging par saving putt at the last to share 3rd place with two others.
Scrivener began the final round with three early birdies and then held on grimly over the final 13 holes, a bogey at the 16th not enough to avoid him enjoying arguably his finest moment in the game.
The result equalled Scrivener’s previous best of 3rd in a European Tour event at the 2015 and 2018 Hong Kong Opens and at the ISPS Handa Perth International in 2016 but this week’s prizemoney was significantly above that he earned in those events and now has the opportunity to play for even more in next week’s event in Dubai.
Scrivener improved to 35th in the Race to Dubai rankings after beginning the week in 59th place and joins the field of 50 next Thursday.
“A big goal of mine at the start of the year was to get to Dubai,” said the 30 year old. “Pretty happy with that and looking forward to that.
“To be honest I haven’t had any time to really think about it. I haven’t even got the flights booked. Yeah, just going to take it as it comes. Feel like I’m playing well enough to contend and yeah, just looking forward to it.”
Australia’s Scott Hend has just scrapped in to the top 50 a birdie at his final hole today perhaps making the difference. Hend finished in 48th place this week.
The winner of the Nedbank Challenge was Tommy Fleetwood who produced three eagles in his round of 65 to force a playoff with Sweden’s Marcus Kinhult and win at the first extra hole.
Fleetwood improved eight places to second position in the Race to Dubai rankings behind Bernd Wiesberger who was one of the trio tied for 3rd place this week.
Is Takumi Kanaya the next Japanese superstar?
Japan’s 21-year old amateur, Takumi Kanaya, appears as if he might well follow in the footsteps of Ryo Ishikawa and Hideki Matsuyama and become the next Japanese superstar on the world stage following his surprise victory in today’s Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters in Gotemba, south of Tokyo.
Kanaya, who is currently the leading amateur in the world, recovered from a slow start to this week’s event to reel off a brilliant final 54 holes and capped it off with an eagle at the last to edge one shot clear of his playing partner Shaun Norris after the pair had broken clear of the rest of the field.
Korea’s Y.E. Yang finished alone in third place four shots behind the second placed Norris.
So good is Kanaya that he finished runner-up to Yuta Ikeda two years ago at the age of 19 and since then has won the 2018 Asia Pacific Amateur Championship and finished runner-up in that same event again this year along with several other amateur titles.
Matthew Griffin and Brad Kennedy finished as the leading Australians when they tied for 13th this week and earned A$54,000 each, Anthony Quayle was 18th, New Zealander Michael Hendry and David Bransdon were 24th, Brendan Jones 28th, Dylan Perry 32nd and Adam Bland 41st.
The Japan Tour now moves south to the southern island of Kyushu for this week’s Dunlop Phoenix in Miyazaki.
Jason Scrivener needing strong weekend in Sun City
Jason Scrivener – file photo
Perth’s Jason Scrivener finds himself in a very similar position to that he was in a week ago, needing a big weekend in the European Tour event he is playing to potentially make it to the season ending DP World Tour Championship Dubai.
Only the 50 leading players on the Race to Dubai Rankings list will advance to the event in Dubai next week and starting this week’s Nedbank Challenge Scrivener was in 59th place after a solid 21st place in Turkey.
Scrivener began the weekend in the event in Turkey just two shots off the lead and at Sun City in South Africa this week he finds himself tied for 6th place and although six shots off the lead of South Africa’s, Zander Lombard, he has advanced to 49th in the projected rankings for Dubai.
Scrivener added a second round of 60 to his opening 70 to be at least within shouting distance of Zombard who leads by two over Louis Oosthuizen.
Scott Hend is the only other Australian in the field and he now has a project Race to Dubai ranking of 53rd so he too needs an improved weekend if he is to be assured of playing next week.
New Zealander Ryan Fox is in 50th place this week and now a projected 58th in the Race to Dubai ranking and he too needs a good weekend.
Lombard has yet to win on the European Tour although a win this week in the lucrative (US$7.5 million) event would be a great way to break through.
Brendan Jones stays in touch at the Visa Taiheiyo
Brendan Jones remains as the leading Australian at the Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters in Gotemba in the shadows of Mt Fuji, but, after sharing the opening round lead, the Canberra golfer has slipped to a share of 9th place and four shots off the lead held by Ryuji Masaoka and Y.E Yang.
Jones’ second round of 73 was looking potentially a lot worse after a start which saw him drop three shots in his first six holes but he steadied the ship with a closing nine of even par 35 and he begins Saturday’s third round comfortably within striking distance of the leaders.
Of the other Australians to make the cut, Matthew Griffin is at 1 under par and one shot behind Jones, Brad Kennedy is at even par, Anthony Quayle is at 2 over, Dylan Perry and 3 over and Adam Bland 4 over.
Brendan Jones shares early Visa Taiheiyo lead
Even a bogey at the final hole of his opening round at the Mitsui Sumitomo Visa Taiheiyo Masters in Japan today, was not enough to stop former winner, Brendan Jones, from taking a share of the first-round lead in one of the Japan Tour’s more significant events.
Jones, who won this event in 2007 with a huge putt from off the green or eagle at the 72nd hole after a birdie at the 71st, was round in 5 under 65 today to share the lead with Sung Hyun Park and Yusaku Miyazato.
An outward nine of 31 had Jones, who played in the second half of the field on day one, set up for a very low round but the back nine proved a little more demanding for the 43 year old.
Jones has also been runner-up in the event and has recorded several other top tens so this is a golf course he likes and he certainly made that clear again today.
Jones’s fellow Australian, David Bransdon, opened with a round of 68 to be tied for 7th, Anthony Quayle 69 and Brad Kennedy next best Australian after his round of 72.
The tournament carries prizemoney of nearly A$2.7 million.
photo below – Jones winning this event in 2007 – Getty Images
Australasians chasing European Tour cards
photo – Brett Rumford- already a six time European Tour winner
13 Australasians will this week attempt to gain or regain full playing rights to the European Tour when the final stage of the European Tour School begins in Tarragona in Spain on Friday.
The field of 156 players who have made their way through either earlier qualifying stages or an unproductive 2019 European Tour will, over 108 holes, chase one of just 25 full status cards available for the 2020 season.
Jarryd Felton, Ben Fergusson, Nick Flanagan, Josh Geary, Simon Hawkes, Deyen Lawson, Jake Mcleod, David Micheluzzi, Zach Murray, Dimi Papdatos, Brett Rumford, Blake Windred and Jordan Zunic get their chance to be part of the European Tour, some for the first time and others to be back playing in Europe with full status.
McLeod and Lawson played the European Tour this season while Rumford is a near twenty-year European Tour competitor with six victories in Europe to his name.
Windred and Micheluzzi are only recently out of the amateur ranks, Murray has just completed an impressive first season in the professional ranks which included a win at the New Zealand Open and Flanagan is a former US Amateur Champion, four time Korn Ferry Tour winner and PGA Tour player.
Tasmanian, Hawkes, won the 2018 Vic Open before it gained European Tour status and now gets his chance at the riches of Europe while two time Australasian Tour winner, Felton and his fellow West Australian Fergusson are joined by former NZ Open champions Zunic and Papadatos who is looking to finally achieve full status in Europe and New Zealander Geary who has enjoyed European Tour status in the past.