Alex Noren retains lead as Bermuda’s best bow out
Port Royal Golf Course is proving to be happy hunting ground for Alex Noren this week.
After equalling the tournament record with a sizzling 61 in the opening round of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship on Thursday, he followed up with a flawless 66 yesterday to maintain the clubhouse lead.
Noren’s bogey-free round contained five birdies, including consecutively on the opening three holes to get his round off to a flyer.
“I played similarly good,” Noren said.
“I hit probably the same amount of greens, but just didn't hit it as close.
“Yesterday [Thursday] was probably the best I’d played in five or ten years but today the wedges came up 15 feet instead of five and I had a bunch of tap-ins yesterday.
“The greens have quite a lot of slope and quite a lot of grain. The first three birdies I just rolled in and then it was a little trickier, but I'm happy with five under.”
Noren held a two-shot advantage over the rest of the field at the start of the second round but Ryan Brehm, Ryan Moore and Satoshi Kodaira had wiped out that advantage after finishing their rounds at 13 under.
Noren wrestled back a share of the lead after rattling in his third straight birdie at the par-three 3rd hole but was forced to wait a while before regained outright control with another birdie at the par-four 15th.
The 36-year-old then two-putted for birdie at the 17th to restore his two-shot advantage over the chasing pack at the halfway stage of the PGA Tour event.
Moore, who is in a three-way tie for second with fellow American Brehm and Japan’s Kodaira, is on a roll after producing his second bogey-free round of the tournament.
“My caddie and I were joking yesterday that it might have been the worst I've hit a golf ball in the last three months, but I made putts,” Moore said.
“When I did get out of position, I made a couple of great par-saving putts and knocked in a couple of 15 to 20-footers and that's just all the difference.”
A further shot back at 12 under is Colombian Camilo Villegas, who leaped 28 places up the leaderboard into fifth after being among the four players to card the day’s lowest round of 63.
“I got off to a great start today birdieing the first two,” said Villegas, who also produced a bogey-free round.
“A couple of missed putts on 5 and then I missed 9, 10, 11 by hitting bad shots but I saved pars on those holes. Other than that, I just rolled some good putts coming in.”
China’s Carl Yuan, American Ben Griffin and Taiwan’s Kevin Yu were the others to shoot 63.
Play was suspended early for the second straight day because of bad light at 5.30pm with nine players left on the course, among them local amateur Eric West, who is 14 over with three holes of his second round left to play.
The second round resumed at 7am today with the third round set to start at 7.50am. The projected cut is five under.
Among those to miss the cut are Bermuda’s Michael Sims, Scott Roy, Oliver Betschart and West.
Sims performed best, bowing out with a one-under 70 that left him one over for the tournament.
“It was good and I'd be lying if I wasn't saying that,” Sims said of his overall display.
“It was very sloppy at times and really good at times. It was a lot of rust out there, but once you get into the rhythm of it all, you start cruising. It was a lot of fun.”
Teenager Betschart, the youngest Bermudian player to feature in a PGA Tour event, carded a four-over 75 to finish six over.
“I wish I could have made the cut and played on, but it wasn't meant to be this year,” Betschart said. “I’ll try again next year.”
Roy carded a 76 that left him 131st, a spot above West.
“Again the score doesn’t reflect how well I played and I am OK with that,” Roy said.
“It’s not the showing I know everyone was hoping for as my play throughout the year was great, but I am just ecstatic with the entire experience and I am glad I had it.
“I feel like I represented myself, my family and the island extremely well. This feeling was a learning experience and I will never forget this.”
It has also been a wonderful experience for West despite his struggles.
“The experience has been amazing and I’m just so grateful for all the encouragement out there despite my game obviously not being where it needs to be,” he said.
“It’s been a roller-coaster ride of emotions and the learning curve is steep. I’ve been learning a lot, which I’ll take forward and I’ll be better for it.
“I just want to say thank you to all the volunteers and spectators for being out there with us. It’s just so special.”
• For today’s tee times, see Related Media
Need to
Know
2. Please respect the use of this community forum and its users.
3. Any poster that insults, threatens or verbally abuses another member, uses defamatory language, or deliberately disrupts discussions will be banned.
4. Users who violate the Terms of Service or any commenting rules will be banned.
5. Please stay on topic. "Trolling" to incite emotional responses and disrupt conversations will be deleted.
6. To understand further what is and isn't allowed and the actions we may take, please read our Terms of Service
