Lonard poised to strike at NSW Open

BY iseekgolf.com | Von Nida Tour | 2004 New South Wales Open | Round Two | 19 Nov 2004

Sydney’s favourite golfing son Peter Lonard did the right thing by an army of fans with a slashing second-round 65 and is poised to strike in the $100,000 New South Wales Open Championship at Liverpool Golf Club.

It left Lonard just a shot out of the lead and within striking distance of leaders Ricky Schmidt and Anthony Summers, who finished the day equal leaders on 11-under-par.

Still the ominous shadow of Lonard, poised to give the tournament a shake, gave tournament organisers just what they were hoping for – a superstar to bring weekend fans to the western Sydney layout.

Lonard doesn’t keep records but he cannot remember that last time he played in a New South Wales Open.

“Gosh, it might be a dozen years or so. I think I played in one at Concord one year,” he said.

Looking as fit as he has for years, Lonard was hoping for a good preparation for next week’s defence of his Australian Open title at The Australian Golf Club.

“Yes, that is my favourite course in Australia. I can’t wait to play there again,” he said.

Still if anyone thought Lonard was using the NSW Open as simply practise to hone his game for the following week, they were wrong. Months of playing on the $300m US Tour has conditioned Lonard enough so that when he gets in the ’zone’ the rest of his game soon follows suit.

Despite the distractions of a couple of hundred people walking the fairways with them and riding every shot and every putt, Lonard was at his unflappable best with an impressive 65 that included seven birdies and no bogeys.

He found the water at the 17th hole but took a drop and still got up and down for a par before birdieing the last. His playing partners were not so fortunate.

Paul Gow shaved the hole all day and finished with a one-under 71 to be just six shots out of the lead. While former rugby league international Paul ’Fatty’ Vautin finished with his second successive 79 to miss the cut for the second year in a row.

Normally a four-handicapper, Vautin obviously enjoyed the experience of playing with two US Tour stars and improved on in his effort of last year at Macquarie Links.

“At least I beat someone home this year and didn’t finish last,” he grinned. Mate, I’m heading towards a 75. I mean fair dinkum, you can’t have eight on the 17th."

Still Vautin said he loved the two-day experience with rock star Jimmy Barnes in the gallery and his good mate another former league international Johnny Gibbs toting his bag.

Another Sydney boy, Anthony Summers, shares the lead with Gosford’s Ricky Schmidt, backing up a first-round 66 with an equally stellar 67 to be poised atop the leaderboard at 11-under par.

First-day leader Schmidt also impressed with a 68 to back up his first-round 65. Still the story of the day was former Narrandera golfer Craig Warren’s amazing course-record 63.

Warren has a stunning nine birdies in 11 holes and, amazingly, was lamenting a missed putt that would have given him nine successive birdies.

“Golf is a funny thing,” said the former Japan Tour player, who now lives at Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast. Yesterday I shot 76 and was wandering around out there thinking ’what am I doing playing golf for a living’.

“Today I had a more positive attitude and it paid off.

“I also looked at the break in the putts and halved it and just hit it a bit harder. And they all went in….or at least most of them. Now I can’t wait for the weekend.”

At one stage course records were tumbling like nine pins at Liverpool in ideal second round scoring conditions.

Young Victorian Jarrod Lyle, a newcomer to the professional ranks, shot a slashing 64 to leap into contention. Still no sooner had his course record score been added to the leaderboard when half an hour later Warren claimed the record again.

The cut fell at two-under par 142 with 62 players, including 10 amateurs, making the cut.

Source – NSWGA