Subang: Taylor MacDonald of Australia rebounded strongly to claim a single stroke lead after the second round of the MPI-Saujana Amateur Championship on Wednesday.
The Queensland native looked to have put behind his disappointment of missing out on the Malaysian Amateur Open title over the weekend, adding a round of three-under 69 to his opening 74 to headline the field heading into tomorrow’s final round on one-under 143.
Nicklaus Chiam of Singapore carded his second consecutive even-par 72 to lie second ahead of joint overnight leader Christopher Robert Brown (73) of Australia. Four strokes adrift in a share for fourth is the trio of Jerome Ng and Abdul Hadi of Singapore as well as Chinese Taipei’s Sean Yu Sung-I on 149.
“I played well and putted good today,” said the 21-year-old MacDonald. “Starting on the second nine, I made three birdies and a bogey and after the turn, I added another three birdies but finished poorly with two straight bogeys at the 8th and 9th. I had no chance at the last hole as my drive left my ball embeded deeply against the lip of the fairway bunker,” he noted.
Chiam, the 2011 Malacca Amateur Open winner, traded three birdies with as many bogeys for another even-par display. “My game could have been better. My approach shots were off a bit but luckily my putter helped me. For the final game tomorrow I’ll try to improve on my chipping,” he added.
Muhd Afif Mohd Razi (77) is the best Malaysian in joint tenth with a 9-over 153 total.
Leading second round results (Malaysian unless stated)
143 – Taylor MacDonald (AUS) 74-69
144 – Nicklaus Chiam (SIN) 72-72
145 – Christopher Brown(AUS) 72-73
149 – Jerome Ng (SIN) 77-72; Abdul Hadi (SIN) 72-77; Sean Yu Sung-I (TPE) 72-77
151 – Chieh Po-Lee (TPE) 78-73
152 – Bramantio Adi (INA) 77-75; Edgar Oh (SIN) 76-76;
153 – Andrew Hans (USA) 78-75; Melvin Chew (SIN) 78-75; Muhd Afif Mohd Razif 76-77
154 – Marc Ong (SIN) 74-80
155 – Johnson Poh (SIN) 80-75; Thomas Tan (SIN) 80-75; Syukrizal (INA) 79-76
156 – Han-Ting Chu (TPE) 82-74; Ervin Chang 79-77; Faiz K Ahmad 78-78, Bryan Teoh 78-78
156 – Low Khai Jei 80-77; Yap Chin Tong 77-80
158 – Jeffrey Wang (HK) 78-80; Kuan-Heng Lin (TPE) 78-80; James Bates (AUS) 76-82
