Royal Melbourne bares another of her many faces at Australian Open
Rory McIlroy’s impact on the tournament has been clearly shown already – image Golf Australia
One of the features which makes Royal Melbourne the highly recognised golf course it is, is the capacity to show its many different faces day to day.
Today’s second round of the Crown Australian Open provided further proof of just that when a reverse wind from that of yesterday’s opening day offered the opportunity for many who had struggled on day one to get themselves back into the event, the cut reducing by two shots from a projected 1 or 2 over last evening to even par and now 75 players who have made it to the weekend are within nine shots of the lead.
The blustery warm northerly winds, which had prevailed on day one until turning to the south late in the day, turned to the opposite direction today and made scoring a different proposition, with more than a dozen scores of 66 or better further confirming such.
The best of these was by one of our joint 36-hole leaders, Daniel Rodrigues of Portugal, whose round of 64, which included eight birdies in his last twelve holes to catapult him from the threat of a missed cut early in his round to a share of the halfway lead with Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen.
The pair are one shot ahead of Australia’s Min Woo Lee, whose round of 65 was highlighted by a hole out for eagle at the par 4 10th hole when holing his second shot from 174 metres.
“So it was a good number,” said Lee, referring to the shot. “Haven’t hit many three-quarter shots, and it was a three-quarter 9-iron and obviously firm greens, you don’t want to hit it too low. So that was an opportunity for a back pin and came off perfect.
‘It was 176 metres and it landed 164. We were trying to land 163, so we were one off.
“I mean, if I keep playing like this, I’ll be pretty happy. Very solid golf, so it’s going to be fun. Hopefully make some birdies and not too many mistakes, mate.
‘I think it’s going to firm up again, so yeah, you’ll be aggressive in the right moments. Again, you can’t overpower this course, and sometimes I feel like I was a bit too conservative, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t. So you can be like Rory and hit a driver, and he obviously had the time to do that as he was battling the cut. But you can make some birdies out there, being aggressive. So that’s the beauty of this place. You can play strong and sometimes conservative.”
Neither of the leaders has won on the DP World Tour, but there is quite a contrast in their respective experience; Neergaard-Petersen is currently ranked 82nd in the world while Rodriguez is outside the top 4000.
Rodrigues gained his DP World Tour playing rights when finishing 6th at the recent Tour School and played his first event as a cardholder last week in Brisbane, where he finished 33rd.
“Well, so far so good. I think the start in Australia has been awesome,” said Rodrigues. “It’s a little bit different from what I was used to, but it’s good, and I’m glad I’m here.
It’s (Royal Melbourne) hard, it’s good. It didn’t seem like it was hard today, but it’s a special place. I mean, you look around, and there are thousands and thousands of people on a Thursday and Friday, and it’s amazing. It’s awesome.”
Neegaard Petersen is a player good enough to have finished 3rd at the recent DP World Tour Championship behind Tommy Fleetwood and Rory McIlroy so he brings a lot of credentials to his standing in the halfway lead.
“It’s been a couple of really good days. I thought yesterday I stayed really, really patient and was able to put together a nice finish and then today I got off to a really good start, and I think from there, pretty much I hit a lot of really good golf shots, gave myself a lot of chances and was able to convert some of them. So two really good days’ work and looking forward to the weekend.”
“So, as I said yesterday, that eagle I made on 14 yesterday really got me going and gave me a lot of momentum, and it was playing a little bit easier today. Still, it was getting really, really firm and fast out there with the wind and the heat all day. So I’d say probably around 14 yesterday is when it started to just get a little bit more manageable.
“Well, certainly I feel like I’ve proved over the last year or so that I have the level to compete out here and be in the thick of things on Sunday. So right now I’m just looking forward to a nice, calm afternoon and then get ready for tomorrow. I know there’s obviously a lot of golf to be played, and we saw today a little bit less wind, it’s a bit more scoreable, but again, the wind could pick up at any time out here, and as soon as the wind picks up, it becomes really, really difficult. So also at the same time, golf for the weekend’s just going to be to stay really patient.”
First round leader, Carlos Ortiz, Cameron Smith and Adam Scott are at 7 under and just two from the lead, adding to the excitement of a possible Australian victory in the event, Smith’s bogey free 65, a big improvement on his recent efforts and a great confidence boost ahead of what will be an exciting weekend for him.
“Yeah, really stoked,” said Smith, who would dearly love to add this title after finishing runner-up to Jordan Spieth nine years ago.. “It’s been a while, so I’m happy I’m up there. It was nothing special. I don’t think it was anything different to what I’ve been doing. It’s just a few putts went in, and the momentum was up and felt really good.
“Yeah, really excited. I mean, this is what the Aussie Open should be. It should be like this every year. There’s no reason why it can’t be. I think it had its darkest moments the last few years, and I can’t wait to see this tournament grow over the years to come.”
New Zealanders Daniel Hillier and Ryan Fox are just three off the pace, and with some 17 players within four of the lead, the weekend promises much.
Rory McIlroy gave tournament organisers a scare when after an air swing led to a bogey at the 14th, he was outside the cut line and the reason for so many people being at Royal Melbourne was in jeopardy but three birdies in his last four holes sorted that out and although seven shots from the lead he is not out of things by any stretch of the imagination.
McIlroy kept his and the tournament organiser’s hopes alive – image Golf Australia
