Min Woo’s stunner ignites Aussie charge; Rory hanging on to avoid disaster – Aus Open LIVE
Rory McIlroy is walking the tightrope as he straddles the Australian Open cut line, while playing partner Min Woo Lee lit up Royal Melbourne with a stunning hole-out eagle at the par 4 10th.
The Australian let out a mighty celebration, lifting his arms in the air and running down the fairway as the ball took two bounces on the green before rolling in the cup.
Lee is three shots off the lead at -6 with six holes to play, while playing partners Adam Scott (-3) and Rory McIlroy (E) will be pushing for a strong finish to surge further up the leaderboard and make the weekend respectively.
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For McIlroy, the projected cut line currently stands at E.
Australia’s Cameron Smith (-3) is a solid back nine away from ending his run of seven straight missed cuts in world ranking events.
LEADERBOARD: Australian Open live scores
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen and Daniel Rodrigues are the clubhouse leaders at -9.
Portugal’s Rodrigues peeled off the low round of the day so far, a seven-under par 64 shortly after the PGA Tour-bound Dane fired a five-under par 66, making the most of the calmer morning conditions with his high ball flight.
The 26-year-old missed the cut at the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland last week, but has bounced back strongly to feel poised for a shot at a fourth professional title.
“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,” Neergard-Petersen said.
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Niemann and Vilips will not be joining the weekend action, however.
The Chilean LIV Golf star shot a five-over par 76 on Friday to tumble well below the cut line at +7 overall.
At the par 3 seventh, his 16th hole of the day, Niemann even putted with a wedge as he knew his tournament was done.
Vilips, who claimed his maiden PGA Tour victory earlier this year, shot a 73, including a triple bogey at the famous par 4 sixth, to finish +5 in a disappointing homecoming for the 24-year-old.
Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz finished his round two shots back from Neergaard-Petersen and Rodrigues, but was in a share of the lead on his second nine before too late bogeys dropped him back.
A further shot back at -6 are New Zealand’s Ryan Fox and Korean Si Woo Kim, who has come to Melbourne this week to push his claims for next year’s Presidents Cup with International team captain Geoff Ogilvy.
Fox, meanwhile, felt like he let an opportunity slip with an even par round after starting the day with a share of the lead.
“I mean after yesterday it was always going to be hard to back up a round like that,” the two-time PGA Tour winner said.
“Obviously a lot easier today. I just felt like one of those days where I was always in between clubs and that’s not great out here.”
Australians Cameron Smith, Elvis Smylie, who was an overnight co-leader, and Marc Leishman are among the afternoon field.
AUSTRALIAN OPEN ROUND 2 TEE TIMES
1st hole
6:45am
Jack Senior
Jake McLeod
Aaron Cockerill
6:55am
Chris Wood
Kaito Sato
Renato Paratore
7:05am
Brad Kennedy
Sean Crocker
Brendan Jones
7:15am
Nicolas Colsaerts
Kiradech Aphibarnrat
Jediah Morgan
7:25am
Sebastian Garcia
Sam Bairstow
Cameron John
7:35am
David Law
Kerry Mountcastle
Ben Eccles
7:45am
Greg Chalmers
Harry Takis
Ricardo Gouveia
7:55am
Peter Lonard
Stephen Allan
Stephen Leaney
8:05am
Daniel Gale
Shubhankar Sharma
Tobias Jonsson
8:15am
Simon Hawkes
Clement Charmasson
Daniel Rodrigues
8:25am
James Morrison
Cameron Adam
Phoenix Campbell
8:35am
Michael Hollick
Clement Sordet
Jimmy Zheng
8:45am
Brady Watt
Ollie Marsh
Lincoln Tighe
10th hole
6:45am
Anthony Quayle
Karl Vilips
Jason Scrivener
6:55am
Jose Luis Ballester
Matt McCarty
Romain Langasque
7:05am
Ryan Fox
Si Woo Kim
Joaquin Niemann
7:15am
Lucas Herbert
Daniel Hillier
David Puig
7:25am
Cam Davis
Abraham Ancer
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen
7:35am
Wenyi Ding
Matt Jones
Ryo Hisatsune
7:45am
Rafa Cabrera Bello
Jye Halls
Kazuma Kobori
7:55am
Carlos Ortiz
Bernd Wiesberger
Wade Ormsby
8:05am
Jack Buchanan
Tom Vaillant
Maximilian Steinlechner
8:15am
Lachlan Barker
Matthew Griffin
Stefano Mazzoli
8:25am
Benjamin Follett-Smith
Dylan Gardner
Rocco Repetto Taylor
8:35am
Jack Munro
Robin Williams
Ryan Van Velzen
8:45am
Tapio Pulkkanen
Nathan Barbieri
Jason Norris
1st hole
11:45am
Matias Sanchez
Austin Bautista
Jeff Guan
11:55am
Alex Fitzpatrick
Geoff Ogilvy
Ryan Peake
12:05pm
Adam Scott
Min Woo Lee
Rory McIlroy
12:15pm
Elvis Smylie
Danny Willett
Cam Smith
12:25pm
Joel Girrbach
Marc Leishman
Ugo Coussaud
12:35pm
Charley Hoffman
Harrison Crowe
Sebastian Munoz
12:45pm
Nick Voke
Caleb Surratt
Andrew Martin
12:55pm
Jordan Gumberg
Jack Thompson
Andrew Johnston
1:05pm
Quim Vidal
Josh Geary
Connor McKinney
1:15pm
James Marchesani
Quinnton Croker
Hunter Logan
1:25pm
Jasper Stubbs
Andreas Halvorsen
Filippo Celli
1:35pm
Chris Malec
Will Florimo
Jay Mackenzie
1:45pm
Andrew Campbell
Yannik Paul
Fabrizio Zanotti
10th hole
11:45am
Tim Hart
Jak Carter
Jack Yule
11:55am
James Conran
Blake Proverbs
Adri Arnaus
12:05pm
Matthew Baldwin
Davis Bryant
Alexander Simpson
12:15pm
Rafael Campos
Richard Green
Curtis Luck
12:25pm
Jordan Doull
Nathan Kimsey
Haydn Barron
12:35pm
David Micheluzzi
Oliver Bekker
Eddie Pepperell
12:45pm
Ben Campbell
Freddy Schott
Adam Bland
12:55pm
Mike Toorop
John Senden
Michael Wright
1:05pm
Daniel Young
Josh Berry
Tyler Hodge
1:15pm
Rod Pampling
Brett Rumford
Fifa Laopakdee
1:25pm
Ben Henkel
William Bruyeres
Gregorio De Leo
1:35pm
Sadom Kaewkanjana
Andres German Gallegos
Corey Lamb
1:45pm
Siddharth Nadimpalli
Andrew Evans
Blake Phillips
