MELBOURNE - Denmark's Thomas Bjorn was a model of consistency as he tamed Royal Melbourne with a three-under 68 to take a one-shot lead after the second round of the $8 million World Cup of Golf in Melbourne, Australia on Friday.
The gritty 42-year-old bogeyed his first and last holes but was rock solid in between as he rolled in five birdies to finish with an eight-under total of 134, one ahead of joint overnight leader Kevin Streelman of the United States.
Already uncomfortably fast in Thursday's (November 21) opening round, Royal Melbourne's greens were rendered devilish during a second straight day of warm sunshine and persistent breezes and less than a third of the field finished under par.
Seemingly well-directed approach shots charged past the hole and players sweated over short putts with trepidation bordering on fear.
Along with Bjorn, Streelman was among the few to handle the conditions well and charged out of the blocks to birdie his opening four holes.
He had the wind taken out of his sails, though, when he dropped three strokes in two holes midway through his round.
Following his first bogey on the eighth, Streelman pulled his second shot into a greenside bunker on the long par-four ninth and ended up with a double-bogey after missing a putt from four metres.
Australia's Jason Day (70) and Portugal's Ricardo Santos (69) were tied for third, four strokes behind Bjorn, with American Matt Kuchar (68) among a group of four players a further stroke adrift.
Sixty players are competing for individual honours for the first time at the biennial World Cup, which was previously solely a team tournament.
Twenty-six two-man teams are also competing, with the best aggregate scores after four rounds of strokeplay determining the winning nation.
World number seven Kuchar, who won the last World Cup for the United States in 2011 with Gary Woodland in China, patiently worked himself back into contention with a solid 68.
That propelled the United States into the lead for team honours on 10-under, three strokes ahead of Denmark's Bjorn and Thorbjorn Olesen (72).
Australia's Day and Adam Scott were tied for third with Japan's Hideto Tanihara (67) and Ryo Ishikawa (71), a further four strokes adrift.
World number 18 Day, who is still grieving over eight relatives killed when Typhoon Haiyan pounded the Philippines earlier this month, grafted to a one-under round but felt cheated after lipping out on several holes.
Leading scores after round two
1 Thomas Bjorn (DEN) 66 68 134
2 Kevin Streelman (USA) 66 69 135
3= Jason Day (AUS) 68 70 138
Ricardo Santos (POR) 69 69 138
5= Hideto Tanihara (JPN) 72 67 139
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
