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O'Hern & Tinning lead at halfway

Local Nick O’Hern and Dane Steen Tinning claimed the lead this morning at the Heineken Classic at the Vines, and with no players able to close the gap later in the day, there they stayed.

O’Hern (69) and Tinning (66) head the field on nine-under, 135, and lead a trio of overseas raiders, Swede Robert Karlsson (66), Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn (71) and South African Roger Wessels (67) by three strokes.

Overnight leader Dean Robertson came back to the pack today with a 74, and is tied for sixth with Greg Norman (73), Paul Devenport (68), defending champion Michael Campbell (70) and Shane Tait (72).

Tinning parred his first four holes, before a bogey at the fifth saw him one-over for the day and two-under overall after eight holes. But an eagle at nine, and birdie at 10 gave him some momentum, before another bogey at 11 dropped him back again.

But the Dane, who has overcome injury a couple of times in his career, recovered the lost stroke immediately at the 12th, and chased down O’Hern with four successive birdies to finish his round.

“When I shot 69 yesterday I was very happy, because with the wind, I would have been happy for even par yesterday, and shooting 69 yesterday was really nice,” Tinning said.

“Today I struck the ball nice all the way around. I didn’t know it was going to be this good a round, I just happened to make two putts coming in and finished with four birdies, so that turned a good round into a superb round.”

O’Hern birdied his opening hole today, the 10th, but gave the shot back, and the outright lead that he had held, with a bogey at 14. A run of three successive birdies to the turn, including a tap in at 16 after he went within inches of an ace, took him three clear of the field.

But seemingly with the course and the tournament there for the taking, O’Hern could only manage a string of nine consecutive pars coming in, and was frustrated by the fact that he says he played better on the Vines front nine, without reward.

“The course is playing fantastic, the fairways are very tight, and the greens are running nicely, it’s going to be a good weekend,” O’Hern said.

“I played pretty good today, but I actually played better on my back nine and shot par than what I did on my front nine and shot three-under.”

“I felt I was hitting the ball better on that nine but didn’t make any putts, but on the front nine I scrambled a bit and made some putts.”

Karlsson birdied his opening hole, and was four-under by the turn with three more at 14, 16 and 18, and finished with his flawless round of 66 courtesy of two more birdies coming in.

Bjorn had a slow start, bogeying the sixth, but turned even with a birdie at nine and was one-under for the day with another at 12. A second bogey at the 13th was followed by four straight pars, before he finished with a solid birdie at the last.

Wessels picked up a couple of early birdies at two and three, before closing his front nine with a bogey. Meandering along on the way home, a quartet of birdies over his final six holes saw him to his 67.

Robertson failed to match his form of the first round, carding three bogeys and just a single birdie, while Norman’s round was brought undone largely by a double bogey at the fifth.

Devenport went out in 33 with birdies at three, five and seven, and improved by another shot coming home with three more birdies and a pair of bogeys, Campbell mixed it up with four birdies and two bogeys, and Tait came back from an early double bogey with a pair of birdies.

Craig Parry and Jarrod Moseley both shot rounds of 70, and share 11th with Englishmen Roger Chapman (67) and John Bickerton (66), while James McLean (67), Andrew Tschudin and Greg Turner (71) are among those tied for 15th.

Brett Rumford at one stage got to five-under, but dropped back late to finish with a 70, where he sits level with Anthony Painter (71), Nathan Green (70) and Wayne Smith (73), while several players are equal 25th on minus one, including Paul Broadhurst (69), David Carter and John Wade (both 70’s).

John Senden got back to level par with a 68 after his Thursday 76, and is level with Henrik Nystrom (69) and American Robert Floyd (69), while Rod Pampling (69) and Lucas Parsons (73) just made the cut.

Among the casualties were Peter O’Malley and Nick Faldo (both three-over with a 74 and 73 respectively), Stephen Leaney (73 and plus four) and Adam Scott (plus five after a 77), while Cameron Percy has added an 81 to his opening round 79 to finish plus 16.

Shot of the day honours went to Englishman Ian Poulter, who aced the par three 16th hole. Only problem for Poulter was, had he scored the hole-in-one tomorrow or Sunday, he would have collected $100,000 from the Burswood Casino.

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