Olympic Golf: Marcus Fraser Leads By One At The Halfway Stage

Australia’s Marcus Fraser hangs on to the lead at the Olympic golf tournament in Rio, in spite of strong competition in the second round.

With the wind continuing to gust and the early starters having to deal with torrential rain, scoring looked very different on Friday at the Olympic Golf Course at Reserva de Marapendi.

The course continued to provide a stern but fair test for the 60 professionals in attendance, meaning that although there were good numbers out there, it didn’t take too much too go wrong in order for any player to end up dropping a shot or two.

After the opening round of play on Thursday, Marcus Fraser was the surprise leader thanks to a spectacular first round 63. The 38-year-old, ranked 90th in the world, showed no signs of wilting on Friday, even if he didn’t have play all his own way.

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In spite of finding himself as low as 11-under just after the turn, Fraser would eventually have to fight his way in with a birdie at the last to hold on to a one-shot lead.

The man immediately behind him on the leaderboard is Belgium’s Thomas Pieters. A two-time winner on the European Tour in 2015, the 24-year-old who played his college golf at the University of Illinois followed up a 67 yesterday with a round of 66 today for a 36 hole total of nine-under par.

Open Champion Henrik Stenson remained right at the front of the race to catch Fraser, currently lurking menacingly in the bronze medal position, only two shots back of the lead. In a summer of dazzling golf for the Swede, it was far from his best round overall, but a number of outrageous long putts helped the fifth ranked player in the word to carve out a 68.

The low round of the day came from young New Zealander Danny Lee. Playing with Padraig Harrington and Matteo Manasserro, Lee birdied his final four holes of the day to charge up the leaderboard late on.

Another notable performance on the day came from Ireland’s Seamus Power. A winner on the Web.com tour earlier this year, Power compiled a round of 67. If not for virtually giving two shots back to the field with a bogey-par finish on the last two holes, Power could have been just outside of the medal positions.

After a nightmare start from the American team on Thursday, Friday provided much more for the US contingent to cheer about.

Rickie Fowler failed to make any inroads with a level par 71, but was much improved from his first round total of 75. Matt Kuchar added a one-under 70 to his solid first round, and is well placed at three-under in total.

Patrick Reed and Bubba Watson were the men on the comeback trail though. Reed recorded three birdies and one bogey for a 69 and brought his overall score for the tournament to one-under. Bubba went even better again, closing with a birdie for a four-under 67 and pushing him all the way up the leaderboard to a tie for 18th at two-under overall.

Men’s Olympic Tournament – Day 2 Scores and Leaderboard

1 Marcus Fraser (Australia) – 69 (-10)

2 Thomas Pieters (Belgium) – 66 (-9)

3 Henrik Stenson (Sweden) – 68 (-8)

T4 Gregory Bourdy (France) – 69 (-6)

T4 Justin Rose (Great Britain) – 69 (-6)

T6 Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spain) – 70 (-5)

T6 Graham DeLaet (Canada) – 71 (-5)

T6 Danny Lee (New Zealand) – 65 (-5)

T6 Fabian Gomez (Argentina) – 67 (-5)

Next: Jim Furyk Follows Up Record-Breaking 58 By Receiving Payne Stewart Award

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