Two Kiwis move into contention
It’s not the prettiest looking New Zealand Open leaderboard if you’re a Kiwi golf fan, but at least Harry Bateman and Tim Wilkinson are flying the New Zealand flag heading into the weekend at Arrowtown.
On a day when defending champion Michael Hendry and top-ranked Kiwi Ryan Fox missed the cut (seven-under), Bateman is tied for fifth at 12-under the card and trails Australian leader Terry Pilkadaris by three shots. Wilkinson is a further shot back and holds a share of ninth.
Bateman turned in and up and down day yesterday, having mixed seven birdies and an eagle with a double bogey and bogey for his fiveunder 67 at The Hills.
Competing in just his second tournament on home soil in the past 11 years, 39-year-old Wilkinson drilled seven birdies - five of them on the back nine (he started on the 10th tee) – and an eagle to card a smooth seven-under 65 with two rounds to play.
Wilkinson, who doesn’t have a full PGA Tour card this year, and Bateman are the only New Zealanders in the top 20 of the $1.2 million tournament. Jared Pender and Nick Voke, who are both nine-under, are tied for 26th.
‘‘Yeah, considering I feel like I’ve played pretty well, but not as well as I’d have liked, not as well as I’ve hit in the last couple of months,’’ Wilkinson said when asked if he was content with his position.
He rued a couple of soft bogeys down the stretch, including one to wrap up his second round, but remained mostly positive considering he’s 27-under par since the second round of last week’s NZPGA Championship in Palmerston North.
After starting the day tied for 41st, he certainly has more to smile about than Fox (six-under) and Hendry (four-under). Fox flirted with the cut all day and appeared to be safe after making an eagle on the 17th at Millbrook. However, he undid the good work by bogeying the par-three 18th and bombing out.
Victorian Pilkadaris backed up his 64 at Millbrook on Thursday with an eight-under 64 at The Hills. He took the outright lead from fellow Aussies Callan O’Reilly and Daniel
Nisbet after chipping in for birdie on the par-four 8th, the penultimate hole of his round which started on the 10th.
‘‘I short-sighted myself on eight, I was trying to draw it in and I didn’t hit a good shot. I just bumped it into the bank and it rolled in and I thought ‘it’s your day, it’s your day’,’’ said Pilkadaris, who hasn’t won a tournament in 13 years.
‘‘I’ve had about six runner-up finishes, so that’s the frustrating thing since my last victory. To win a golf tournament you’ve got to have a little bit of luck and sometimes you get it and sometimes you don’t.’’
Newcastle’s O’Reilly produced the round of the tournament yesterday, smoking a course record (11-under 61) at The Hills. It eclipsed Peter Fowler’s (2007) and Jin Jeong’s (2012) 10-under mark.