Seri Kembangan: Shaaban Hussin brighten his chances of a second straight appearance at the CIMB Asia Pacific Classic, Malaysia after taking the outright lead at the end of the second day of the National Qualifier at The MINES Resort & Golf Club today to in the tournament proper.
Shaaban blitzed the Robert Trent Jones layout with eight birdies but dropped a double-bogey and bogey that left him with a fine five-under-par 66. In conditions that were drier than the opening round, the 30-year-old finished with a two-day 134 total, three strokes ahead of second-placed R. Nachimuthu, who fired a round of a four-under 67, which gave him a 137 total.
Overnight joint leaders Nicholas Fung and S. Murthy were a further two strokes adrift while Sasidaran finished with a 1-over-par 72, leaving him tied with S. Sivachandran on 2-over 140.
On a day when only six players broke par, Shaaban stood out with a round to savour and wished that he had not pushed his drive into the rough on the fourth and and fluffed a three-foot birdie-putt on the eighth. “The fourth hole really stung me. Given that it is the longest par-four on the course and the most difficult, I tried to get as far up the fairway as possible. In so doing, I strayed to the right and that spelt trouble all the way,” said Shaaban, who was the sole Malaysian in the field for the inaugural PGA Tour-sanctioned event last year.
In his attempt to punch out, Shaaban’s ball struck a tree and when he did get to the green, he two-putted for a double bogey. Nonetheless, Shaaban bounced back in the best possible fashion. He birdied the next three holes and after adding another at the 9th hole, he made the turn in 3-under-par. A bogey at the 10th was offset by birdies at the 12th, 15th and 16th leaving Shaaban on two-under for the homeward nine.
Looking ahead to the final round tomorrow, Shaaban said he would follow the same game plan of trying to play par-golf on the more difficult holes and be a bit more attack-minded on those which yield more birdies to take home the RM22,000 winner’s prize.
The top-60 from today’s standings will proceed to tommorow’s third and last round, where champion will play in a select field of 48 in the US$6.1 million CIMB Asia Pacific Classic, Malaysia. The other Malaysian player in the field for the US$6.1 million event will be the top ranked local on the world standings as of September 21.
Leading second round scores
134 Shaaban Hussin 68-66
137 R.Nachimuthu 70-67
139 S.Murthy 68-71, Nicholas Fung 68-71
140 S.Sivachandhran 69-71, M.Sasidaran 68-72
141 Mohd Hanafiah 72-69, Akhmal Tarmizee 69-72
142 Sahal Saedin 74-68
143 Solhairy Sharif 74-69
