www.ntnews.com.au Saturday, November 16, 2013. NT NEWS. 45

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Scott shareslimelight butready to fire

Equal leader Nathan Holman celebrates a successful birdie putt during the second round ofthe Australian Masters at Royal Melbourne yesterday Picture: WILLIAM WEST

GOLF

By SAMLIENERTin Melbourne

SNAPSHOT

Australian Masters - Round 2highlightsPlayer of the Day: Nathan Hol-man, just 22 years old and in hisfifth tournament as a profess-ional, shot a six-under-par roundof 65 on a course he knows wellto share the halfway lead withAdam Scott.Stat of the Day: Holman hadjust 23 putts yesterday. Scott had32.Shot of the Day: Holman holedout from a bunker on the sixthhole for eagle.They said it: ‘‘It kind of feels likeI plodded my way around andmade a lot of pars today, which Idid, because I made so many in arow. It’s frustrating.’’ — eventhough Scott joined the lead, hefelt his round could have beenconsiderably better.Tournament summary: In-formScott is well placed to follow uplast week’s Australian PGA win.With Holman, he is a shot clear offellow Australians Matthew Grif-fin and Nick Cullen. But Americanworld No.8 Matt Kuchar is in fifthplace, four off the lead, and iscapable of mounting a seriousweekend challenge.

He’s nine under,

equal leader, I think

he’s doing pretty

good

Adam Scott

ADAM Scott feels he ploddedhis way to the AustralianMasters halfway lead butsenses something special.

The world No.2’s bogey-freefive-under-par 66 at RoyalMelbourne yesterday wasenough to give him a share ofthe lead with 22-year-old Vic-torian Nathan Holman, onnine under overall.

It left Scott well placed tosuccessfully defend his title.

But it wasn’t enough toleave the US Masters champ-ion totally satisfied. After he

had birdied the first threeholes, he felt a stellar roundmight have been on its way.

He still does.Numerous birdie putts just

missed the hole as Scottstrung together 11 straightpars after his initial run.

Even after picking up twolate birdies to join Holman inthe lead, another near-misson the last denied him theoutright lead.

‘‘I just kind ofstayed patientand tried not toget too frus-trated,’’ Scottsaid. ‘‘It feelslike I just plod-

ded along and it wasn’t an ex-citing five-under at all. It wasjust really steady stuff, whichis pleasing.

‘‘But I feel like there’s thatround in me somewhere heresoon where I can go low.’’

There were no such com-plaints from Holman, wholives within minutes of RoyalMelbourne and won the Aust-ralian Master of the Ama-teurs Championship at thecourse last year.

He’s relishing the chance togo head-to-head with his idolScott today in just his fifthtournament as a professional.

While it’s a dream match-up for the confident young-ster, Scott admitted he knewnothing of Holman.

He’s happy to pass on ad-vice, but tipped the up-and-comer wouldn’t need much.

‘‘He’s nine under, equalleader, I think he’s doingpretty good,’’ Scott said.

Holman shared the roundof the day, a six-under 65,with fellow local MatthewGriffin, who is tied for secondon eight under with SouthAustralia’s first-round leaderNick Cullen.

American world No.8 MattKuchar is alone in fifth spoton five under.

Earlier, Jarrod Lyle backed

up his opening round one-over-par 72 with a 71 yester-day to leave himself one-over.

That delivered his pre-event aim of making the cutin what is his first profess-ional tournament in 20months after fighting cancerfor the second time in his life.

But former championsPeter Lonard, Craig Parryand Bradley Hughes didn’tmake the weekend.

Pornanong’s luck is turning

THAILAND’S Pornanong Phatlum took the first-roundlead in the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Mexico,birdieing seven of the first 13 holes at GuadalajaraCountry Club yesterday. Pornanong, winless in fiveseasons on the US LPGA Tour, dropped a stroke onthe par-4 14th hole and finishedwith a six-under 66.Amy Yangwas a stroke back, and fellow SouthKorean players Inbee Park and So Yeon Ryuwere twoshots back at 68with Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist.

Pirate and Tiger clean up

PITTSBURGH’S AndrewMcCutchen and Detroitslugger Miguel Cabrera won baseball’s Most ValuablePlayer awards yesterday. Centre fielder McCutchenwas named National LeagueMVP after leading thePirates to their first winning record and post-seasonappearance since 1992. That was also the year BarryBondswas the last Pirate to earnMVP honours. ForCabrera, the honour is more familiar. He nabbed theAmerican LeagueMVP for the second year in a row.

Aussies ownmedley swim

AUSTRALIAN swimmers aremaking the newlyintroducedmixed 4x50mmedley relay their own,notching up yet anotherWorld Cupwin. The Aussieshave set four world records thisWorld Cup in theevent, whichwas introduced this year. Noworldrecords were broken in Beijing this week, but anAustralian quartet yet again took gold. RobertHurley, Christian Sprenger, Alicia Coutts and CateCampbell bested a team China, clocking 1:38.23.

Stenson a sensationHENRIK Stenson had a nearflawless opening day of theDP World Tour Champion-ship in Dubai, marred only bya missed par putt from threefeet on the final hole.

The Swede shot four-under-par 68 to remain on course tobecome the new EuropeanNo. 1, finishing as the bestamong the nine players inwith a chance of winning theRace to Dubai this week.

Stenson was just two shotsoff the early pace set bySpaniard AlejandroCanizares, while Australia’sMarcus Fraser and Thai Ki-radech Aphibarnrat were tiedsecond at five under par aftershooting rounds of 67.

Welshman Jamie Donald-son, one of eight players who

can still overtake Stenson,was tied alongside the Swedeand Spain’s Rafael Cabrera-Bello at 68.

Race to Dubai No. 2 JustinRose of England opened witha 70, No.3 Graeme McDowellof Northern Ireland was onlevel par, while No. 4 IanPoulter of England startedwith a 69.

Defending champion andformer world No. 1 Rory McIl-roy started with back-to-backbirdies, but could not get anymore after the seventh andfinished at one-under-par 71.

All eyes were on the lasttwo two-balls, comprising thefour players in control oftheir own destiny, and it wasStenson who was the best onthe opening day.

Round muddied upLIGHTNING and heavyrain forced officials to sus-pend the first round of theUS PGA Tour event in Mex-ico yesterday with only 15players managing to com-plete their rounds.

‘‘The biggest thing wasthe lightning threat and therain we received,’’ said Slug-ger White, the PGA Tour’svice-president of rules andcompetitions. ‘‘We absol-utely lost the golf course.With this rain it just knock-ed us out.’’

Australian Matt Jonesjoined Americans Will Mac-Kenzie and Len Mattiace ina share of the clubhouselead on two-under 69, butmost of those scheduled totee off on Thursday after-

noon did not make it on tothe course.

Play was halted twice. Af-ter a delay of just over anhour in the morning, playresumed for three hours.More pounding rain promp-ted a second suspension andplay did not resume.

The first round is sched-uled to resume on Friday,but the forecast is for moreinclement weather.

Brian Stuard, who fin-ished second in Mexico in2010, was atop theleaderboard at five-underpar through 15 holes. FellowAmerican Erik Comptonand Mexico’s Alvaro Quiroswere a stroke back, Comp-ton through 17 holes andQuiros through 15.