Australians stake claim in Chicago
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2011 BMW Championship | Round Two | 17 Sep 2011
The BMW Championship at the Cog Hill Golf and Country Club near Chicago has reached the halfway stage and two players share the lead at 11 under par.
Mark Wilson and Justin Rose hold a two shot advantage over the game’s hottest player at present Webb Simpson with Queenslander John Senden alone in 4th position just one shot further back.
Wilson won twice early in 2011 but it has been a solid yet unspectacular season since. He was 17th in FedEx Cup points standing leading into this week but now finds himself in 2nd position.
Rose also started the season well but in general his form has dropped away over the latter half of the season. Outside the all important top 30 who will move to Atlanta next week before this week’s event had even begun, Rose has moved to 4th in FedEx Cup point standings but clearly there is a still a long way to go for the Englishman.
Simpson has shown an amazing resilience to be in contention as often as he has in recent weeks and then to continue on with it this week. In his only previous visit to this golf course in 2009 he finished 61st out of 70 players so his effort this week is a further indication of just how far he has come in 2011.
John Senden has made a big move as he chases a place in next week’s Tour Championship. 55th at the start of this week, he now finds himself in 24th position in FeEx Cup standings and if he was to go on and win this week then all of a sudden he has opened the door for Presidents Cup qualification or selection.
Allenby too has helped his chances with his share of 5th in this event and a move to 39th in the overall standings. He needs to improve further and with the Presidents Cup final selections made in ten days time he needs to make it to Atlanta it would seem.
Geoff Ogilvy is in 7th position this week and with the missed cut of Ryo Ishikawa in Japan this week the door opens for him in terms of perhaps automatic selection for Melbourne. He needs to go on with it but he is moving in the right direction.
Aaron Baddeley, Jason Day and Marc Leishman are in 37th position at even par and 11 shots from the leaders. Day improved 12 shots on his opening round with a 65 today. Adam Scott was the only other Australian in the field and he is in 51st position.
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