Marcus Fraser in lead at Australian Open
Marcus Fraser is up at no. 1 on the Australian Open leaderboard followed by Brendan Jones and John Senden.
That really makes for eye-popping news, because the bigger names in the field, like Justin Rose or Adam Scott, do not seem to be anywhere near. Perhaps it is the gale force winds or inner chaos, the crowd can only speculate.
Fraser’s game, thus far, has experienced a stroke of good luck because he started play on Thursday morning when the weather was calmer and the winds not so unforgiving.
Working on the early tee-off, he played a real good round. At just three-under, he had finished the front nine!
“I didn’t really do much wrong for the next 10 holes and all of a sudden I was three-over-par. I said to myself ‘there’s a lot of birdie chances on that final stretch’. I definitely made the most of it. It was nice”.
What really worked for Fraser Thursday morning was the hole-in-one that he carded on the 15th tee before the winds grew teeth. The ace helped him leap well ahead of the chasing pack and kept him there when the winds picked up.
"To have one go in like that turned the tournament right around," a jubilant Fraser said after the game. "Hopefully we can keep that momentum going over the weekend".
Fraser tallied birdies on the sixth and seventh holes and these back-to-back birdies. With a par on the eighth and the aforementioned ace really put him back in the game after a surgical operation that inserted a synthetic disk in his damaged neck.
Brendan Jones finished the first round just behind the field leader. In round two, he shot a 71 which, given his talent for the game and superb start to the tournament, could have been so much better.
John Senden had a day of thrills and chills. He started the tournament strongly, and after the first round, carded a 6-under.
On his second round, he sunk under the weight of 5 straight bogeys. That could have easily been the end of him, were it not for the 17th hole birdie that kept him in league with Fraser’s contention.
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