KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 23 — Despite the cold weather, Malaysian pro golfers Gavin Kyle Green and Ben Leong continued to stay hot at the ISPS Handa Melbourne World Cup of Golf today.
The Malaysians, who carded an impressive nine-under 63 on the opening day yesterday, returned a one-over 73 in the foursome (alternate) format round today at The Metropolitan Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia.
Gavin and Ben are in joint third spot with three other countries — Italy, India and England — with a two-day total of eight-under 136.
That leaves them just two shots adrift of joint leaders Belgium and South Korea.
Belgium’s Thomas Pieters and Thomas Detry and overnight co-leaders South Korea’s An Byeong-hun and Kim Si-woo have a two-day total of 10-under 134.
All credit to the Malaysians for staying in touch with the leaders.
“Wind everywhere, it was cold, it was wet, keeping our clubs dry was really a bonus. If you told us we would score one-over, I would have taken a 75.
“It was just tough. Ben and I had to grind it out and made a couple important putts, especially Ben. A lot of good putts, important putts,” said Gavin, commenting on today’s round.
The tournament will switch back to the fourballs format for tomorrow’s third round, with the final round moving back to foursomes on Sunday.
“Our strategy has worked so far, I hope it continues. We’ll see what happens in the next two days,” said Gavin.
134 - Belgium (Thomas Pieters/Thomas Detry) 63-71, South Korea (An Byeong-Hun/Kim Si-woo) 62-72;
136 - Italy (Andrea Pavan/Renato Paratore) 65-71, India (Anirban Lahiri/Gaganjeet Bhullar) 64-72, MALAYSIA (Gavin Green/Ben Leong) 63-73, England (Tyrrell Hatton/Ian Poulter) 62-74;
137 - Mexico (Abraham Ancer/Roberto Diaz) 67-70;
138 - Scotland (Russell Knox/Martin Laird) 67-71, Australia (Mark Leishman/Cameron Smith) 62-76;
139 - France (Alexander Levy/Michael Lorenzo-Vera) 66-73, Sweden (Alexander Bjork/Joakim Lagergren) 65-74. — Bernama
