Oda ahead in Diamond Cup, Basic 10th
BY Bruce Young | Japan Tour | 2011 Diamond Cup | Round Two | 27 May 2011
Koumei Oda leads the Japan Golf Tour’s Diamond Cup Golf event into the weekend at the Chiba Country Club’s Umesato layout in Chiba east of Tokyo.
The 32 year old four time winner on the Japan Golf Tour leads by two over Korean Kim Do-Hoon with Masaya Tomida on his own in third position.
Oda finished runner-up in this event last year albeit at a different golf venue but today his bogey free round of 65 has set him up for the chance to atone for his near miss twelve months ago when a fast finish saw him close a large gap on Kim Kyung-tae.
Kim Do-Hoon was one of four golfers to have earned a US Open start last Monday at the Japan Tour’s qualifying for the event at the Congressional Golf Club and the second season Japan Golf Tour player is well placed to build on that momentum and win his first Japan Golf Tour event. Kim finished inside the top ten on nine occasions in his rookie season in 2010 and a breakthrough win now seems just a matter of time.
The leading Australasian at the completion of 36 holes is Japan Tour rookie Neven Basic of Sydney whose second round of 66 has moved him into a share of 10th position. Basic missed the cut in his opening two events of the season but was impressive today in his six birdies, no bogey round.
Chris Campbell is in 17th position at 4 under and eight from the lead, fellow rookie Neil Sarkies is in 33rd position while New Zealanders David Smail and Richard Lee are in a share of 47th position.
The surprise from and Australian perspective was the failure of Brendan Jones, currently number two on the 2011 Japan Golf Tour money list, who failed to make the cut. Jones recovered well after a horror 76 yesterday but his 69 left him two short of where he needed to be.
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