Shandong, China, June 3: Veteran Michael Long (pic) rekindled some of the magic of his past to take the second round lead in the US$1 million Nanshan China Masters.
The 42-year-old Kiwi carded a five-under-par 67 for a two round total of seven under par at Nanshan International Golf Club’s Danling Cuiyuan Course.
He leads by a stroke from Australians Andres Stolz and Scott Laycock. Stolz, winner of the season opening Indonesia PGA Championship on OneAsia, fired a 68 while Laycock shot 67.
One stroke further back is Australian Terry Pilkadaris who came in with a 68.In an inspired performance, 15-year-old amateur Li Haotong from China shot a 71 to lie three under for the tournament in a tie for 13th place.
Long was once the golden boy of golf in New Zealand who won the New Zealand Open in 1996 and the Greg Norman Invitational three years later. He also claimed titles on the Nationwide Tour in the United States in 2001 and 2003.
However, his career has slowed down over the past couple of years to the extent that he recently started working in between tournaments.
“It is a great week so far considering that my golf is restricted these days. About eight months ago I started working for a marketing company in Perth in between playing in tournaments. Since turning professional 20 years ago I have not worked outside of golf. It has been a great experience and I work with a great bunch of guys,” said Long.
He made an eagle, four birdies and dropped one shot to put himself in a strong position to push for the winner’s cheque of US$180,000. His last win came in the Western Australian PGA Championship in 2008.“It has not been too long since I last won. The memories and emotions are still there. I will feel nervous going into the weekend but it would be wrong not to be,” added Long.
Stolz carded a bogey free round with four birdies. It was a fine round considering he played in the morning when strong winds forced play to be suspended for two hours.
“It was a crazy morning with that wind. It actually felt quite dangerous having a putt on the putting green this morning. I was expecting something to fly off the clubhouse and come kill us all. Luckily the weather eased off. I hit two really good shots down the 10th hole to start and I made a great eight foot putt which just put me in a good mood,” said Stolz.
The Australian is currently ranked second on the OneAsia Order of Merit and can overtake front runner Kim Kyung-tae from Korea by winning this week.
“I feel like I have been in control of my game since I started playing again after the long layoff through injury. It has been a slow steady climb all the way. I felt pretty annoyed leading up to the Indonesia PGA Championship that I had not had a win. I was really frustrated and telling everyone I was going to have a win before Christmas. Mainly my putting was not quite hot enough but I holed a couple of extra putts in Indonesia,” added the Australian.
Players teed off on schedule at 6.20am but shortly after 7am play was suspended when on two different holes balls were moved on the greens by winds that reached 30 mph.
A total of 30 players were unable to complete their second round including Rohan Blizard from Australia who was six under with four to play.
Leading second round scores
137 – Michael Long (NZL) 70-67
138 – Andre Stolz (AUS) 70-68, Scott Laycock (AUS) 71-67
139 – Terry Pilkadaris (AUS) 71-68, Anthony Summers (AUS) 71-69
140 – Joshua Younger (AUS) 70-70, Rory Hie (INA) 71-69, David Bransdon (AUS) 69-71,Kim Dae-hyun (KOR) 69-71, Pavit Tangkamolprasert (THA) 71-69
141 Peter Wilson (AUS) 67-74, Kim Woo-hyun (KOR) 72-69, Leigh Mckechnie (AUS) 67-74,Kim Bi-o (KOR)74-67, Jamie Arnold (AUS) 69-72, Mitchell Brown (AUS) 71-70, Li Haotong (CHN) 70-71
Source: www.oneasia.asia
