Louis Oosthuizen accelerated his remarkable comeback from US Masters heartbreak as he seized control of the rain-interrupted Maybank Malaysian Open yesterday.
The world No. 19, completing his second round after a heavy storm on Friday, fired two birdies on his last six holes for four-under par-68 and a one-shot lead over a field containing four other major-winners.
Oosthuizen lost out to Bubba Watson in a Masters play-off less than a week ago, and he has contended with a 30-hour journey across 12 time zones, plus extreme heat, a tropical storm and traveling with his two young children.
However, the unflappable South African has oozed class at the par-72 Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club and he followed up his first-day 66 for an aggregate score of 10-under 134 in the US$2.5 million European and Asian Tour event.
Fellow South Africans Jbe Kruger and Hennie Otto, and Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher, are a stroke back in joint second, while 2010 PGA Championship winner Martin Kaymer, a former world No. 1, is three off the pace.
The 29-year-old now has a few hours’ wait before starting his third round in the steamy Malaysian capital, where further storms were forecast yesterday following Friday’s deluge.
Oosthuizen’s close friend, Charl Schwartzel, last yar’s Masters champion and the first-round leader, gave up three shots in his second round to drop to five strokes back in a share of 13th.
Six-time European Tour winner Alvaro Quiros shot 68 to lie six off the lead and the defending champion, 18-year-old Italian Matteo Manassero, was eight shots adrift.
New Zealand’s Michael Campbell, the 2005 US Open winner, survived the level-par cut at one-under, but Todd Hamilton, whose sole major was in 2004, was eliminated after finishing four over through 36 holes.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier