France's Dubuisson leads Federal Amateur

BY Anthony Powter | Australian Mens Amateur Tour | 2008 Federal Amateur Open Championship | Round Two | 04 Oct 2008

France’s Victor Dubuisson fired a second round 6-under-par 66 to move to 8-under-par for a two stroke lead at the Federal Amateur being played in Canberra. Jim Jeong managed consecutive rounds of 69 and is two strokes behind the Frenchman at 6-under-par.

Dubuisson, ranked 29th in the world, played the day’s low round to overtake first round leader, Michael Smyth, who fired an even-par 72 to be tied with England’s Andrew Sullivan in third position at 5-under-par.

Michael Foster, the 2008 Australian Amateur runner-up and 2007 Rice Planters Champion, made his move today with a second round 5-under-par 67 to rocket up the leaderboard. Foster shares 5th position at 4-under-par with Australia’s number one ranked player Matthew Griffin, four strokes from Dubuisson.

Foster is a dual winner of the Western Australian Amateur, however he is yet to claim a National Selection Trial event in Australia with his best performance a T2 at the 2006 Dunes Medal. Ranked 39th in the world, Foster is an experienced international player and should continue to perform well this weekend.

Griffin is the only member of the three man Australian Eisenhower Team playing the Federal Amateur and experienced a mixed round, which was punctuated by a number of uncharacteristic missed pitch shots that fell short of the green.

The world number five continues to press the field and remains in with a strong chance to claim his third national trail event after taking the Mandurah Eastern Amateur and Keperra Bowl earlier this year.

A group of six are at 3-under-par and in T7th, including Matt Jager with rounds of 72-69, and defending champion Daniel Beckmann, also with rounds of 72-69.

With only five shots separating this group from Dubuisson, the tournament remains anything but a closed case.

Many of Australia’s best are moving in on the strong international field who are using the tournament as a warmup for the World Amateur Championship in Adelaide.