Canadian Press with files from Golf Canada
BARWON HEADS, Australia – Felicity Johnson made a late move up the leaderboard Thursday at the LPGA’s Vic Open to take a two-stroke lead after the opening round.
The Englishwoman shot an 8-under 65 on the Creek course at the 13th Beach Golf Links, where men and women played in alternate groups in the unique tournament format also sanctioned by the men’s European Tour.
“Anytime you shoot 8 under, it’s pretty good,” Johnson said. “To do it bogey free is a bonus. I’m going to sound a bit cocky, but it was really easy. I hit 17 greens in regulation, birdied three of the par 5s, so there’s kind of a couple of almost gimme birdies.”
Su Oh of Australia had a hole-in-one and had held the lead for most of the day with Team Canada Young Pro Squad member Anne-Catherine Tanguay, both at 6 under.
“I thought my front nine, I came out like pretty hot. I was hitting some solid iron shots. And then I would say the back nine is a little bit more shaky, like the wind picked up and I think I didn’t have as much commitment as on the front, so I didn’t hit perfect, to be honest, but it was enough,” said Tanguay, who recently became an ambassador for RBC.
The 28-year-old Quebec City native is prepared to take on any challenging weather conditions in the rounds to come.
“You know, just whatever happens, happens. I’m going to just focus on what I can control because obviously the weather is out of my hands. I’ll definitely try to prep as best as I can. Yeah, new course tomorrow, so it will be a lot of fun.”
Fellow Canuck Alena Sharp of Hamilton, Ont., carded a 4-under 69 to share 10th place.
Oh aced the 138-meter par-3 15th hole with a 6-iron. Tanguay played the par-72 Beach course and shot 66.
Minjee Lee began her title defence with a 1-under 72, while seven-time major winner Karrie Webb shot 73, both on the Creek course. Morgan Pressel was 3-under after a 70 on the Creek layout, as was Georgia Hall.
Nick Flanagan, an Australian who won the 2003 U.S. Amateur, shot a 10-under 62 on the Creek course to take a two-stroke lead in the men’s tournament.
Among those tied for second were Flanagan’s roommate, James Nitties, and Kurt Kitayama, Hugo Leon and Callum Shinkwin. Andrew (Beef) Johnston shot 66, also on the Creek course, as did former U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogivly on the Beach course.
Tournament officials said Nitties, who started on the back nine at the Beach course, tied a record for consecutive birdies with nine, equaling Mark Calcavecchia’s record at the 2009 Canadian Open. Unfortunately for Nitties, he double-bogeyed his fifth hole before making birdie on the last four holes of the back nine and the first five on the front.
“I don’t hold any other world records that I know of so to be a part of one is pretty cool,” Nitties joked.
The 62 was Flanagan’s lowest tournament round.
“I have had a few 9-unders on tour,” he said. “It felt super uncomfortable but it kind of came easy if that makes any sense, which it doesn’t really. A couple of early putts dropped and I just wasn’t trying too hard essentially.”
Canadian Austin Connelly opened with a 2-under 70 to sit T88.
The start of play was delayed for more than an hour by early-morning fog.
The Beach course is being played as a par-72 for both men and women; the Creek is par-72 for men and 73 for women. Both courses will be used for the first two rounds of the tournament.
The Women’s Australian Open, also sanctioned by the LPGA, will be played next week at The Grange in Adelaide.
ANTALYA, Turkey —Justin Rose is No. 1 in the world again, and this time it feels even more special.
More than having the top ranking, he goes home with a trophy.
Rose rallied from a three-shot deficit Sunday with a 3-under 68, and then defeated Li Haotong of China on the first playoff hole with a par to win the Turkish Airlines Open for the second straight year.
The first time Rose reached No. 1 in the world was two months ago, a bittersweet moment because he lost the BMW Championship outside Philadelphia in a playoff against Keegan Bradley.
“This time I’ve got some silverware,” Rose said. “Last time it was muted because I was still so mad at not winning the tournament at the BMW. But this time I’ve got the double kind of winning feeling, so it might be a bit more fun to celebrate it at this time.”
The 38-year-old from England has plenty to celebrate of late.
He won the FedEx Cup on the PGA Tour with its $10 million bonus, but much like getting to No. 1 in the world for the first time, it was an awkward moment because he had a chance to win the Tour Championship and instead closed with a 73 and tied for fourth.
Those were big achievements that felt at the moment like consolation prizes.
“Not having that winning feeling in a tournament but still coming away with accolades,” Rose said. “I was keenly aware that I wanted to get back in the winner’s circle, and it was good to get it done today.”
He needed help from Li, who closed with a 71 and lost the playoff with a three-putt bogey from just inside 10 feet.
“It’s a tough day for me,” Li said. “I think I played well the whole week, but didn’t hole a few putts on the last and that was it.”
Rose made his fourth birdie of the round at the 14th for a two-shot lead. Li responded with a stunning approach to tap-in range on the par-5 15th for an eagle and a share of the lead when Rose three-putted from long range for par.
Rose made a 4-foot birdie on the 16th to regain the lead, only to give it back with a three-putt bogey on the 17th. Li three-putted from long range on the 18th for bogey and Rose was set to win in regulation when he blasted out of a bunker to 4 feet, only to miss the short par putt.
Rose missed a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th in a playoff. Li missed his birdie putt for the win, and then missed the par putt to lose.
It was the 21st victory worldwide for Rose, and the first time he had successfully defended his title. While the Turkish Airlines Open was only his second title this year, he has been at a consistently high level over the last two months.
Rose has finished no worse than eighth in his last six tournaments dating to the second FedEx Cup playoff event on the PGA Tour. Going back to his victory at the Colonial on the PGA Tour, he has finished in the top 10 in 11 of his last 13 tournaments.
Rose said it was the best golf of his career “as a collective body of work.”
“Just the consistency of it,” he said. “I think I averaged 68.9 on the PGA Tour this year, and that’s way lower than I’ve ever averaged before. The fun thing is I still feel like there’s improvement to be had and that’s what I’m looking for. I’m really looking forward to the off-season to still work at a few things and still get better. I think that’s the exciting part _ at 38, I still feel like there is improvement to be achieved.”
Rose was headed home to the Bahamas instead of playing the next Rolex Series event in South Africa, and he was not planning to be at the Race to Dubai finale at the DP World Championship. He would have to win to overtake British Open champion Francesco Molinari.
Rose kept the No. 1 ranking for two weeks the first time he reached the top. Brooks Koepka will have a chance to take it back in two weeks when he defends his title at the Dunlop Phoenix Open on the Japan Golf Tour.
Canadian Press with files from Golf Canada
JOHANNESBURG – Chris Paisley and Adrien Saddier opened up a big lead after two rounds of the South African Open on Friday as they moved to 13 under par and four shots clear of their nearest challengers.
England’s Paisley hit a 7-under 65 to move up from second overnight. France’s Saddier had the round of the day at Glendower Golf Club in Johannesburg, a blistering, course record-equaling 63 with an eagle, seven birdies and no bogeys.
Both Paisley and Saddier are seeking a maiden European Tour title.
Home player Jacques Kruyswijk is alone in second on 9 under, with a group of four players another shot behind him on 8 under and in a tie for fourth.
That group contains overnight leaders Branden Grace and Chase Koepka, Zimbabwe’s Scott Vincent, and Retief Goosen, the two-time U.S. Open champion who hasn’t won a professional tournament since 2009.
The 48-year-old Goosen began this week with a promising 69 and then carded six birdies and an eagle for his 5-under 67 in the second round. It could have been even better if not for a bogey on No. 13 and a double bogey on the last.
Ernie Els, a five-time winner of the South African Open, made the cut after a 70 moved him to 3 under. Defending champion Graeme Storm missed the cut by a shot, though, thanks mainly to his opening-round 75.
Canadian Austin Connelly shot a 1-over-par 73 to hold a share of 56th heading into the weekend at Glendower. Fellow countryman Mike Weir carded a second consecutive 73 (+2), missing the even-par cutline by two strokes.
Canadian Press with files from Golf Canada
GAUTENG, South Africa – Branden Grace and Chase Koepka shot 7-under 65s to share the first-round lead at the SA Open on Thursday.
Koepka, the younger brother of U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka, was among the morning starters and set the clubhouse target by hitting an eagle and seven birdies in his third tournament of his debut season on the European Tour.
Grace had three eagles – at Nos. 2, 8 and 15 – as he bids for a ninth European Tour title and to complete the set of wins at his native South Africa’s three most prestigious events. He has already won the Alfred Dunhill Championship in 2014 and the Nedbank Golf Challenge last year, as well as the Joburg Open in 2012.
England’s Chris Paisley was alone in third place after shooting 66.
Canada’s Austin Connelly recorded a 2-under 70 to sit inside the projected cutline in a tie for 31st. Canadian Golf Hall of Fame member Mike Weir notched five birdies against four bogeys and one double-bogey en route to posting a 1-over 73.
SHANGHAI – Justin Rose posed with the trophy from the balcony high above the 18th green at Sheshan International, a moment that didn’t seem possible.
He started the final round eight shots behind Dustin Johnson, the No. 1 player in the world.
“The beginning of the day, I was playing for second,” Rose said.
The HSBC Champions turned into a shocker in Shanghai when Johnson went into the PGA Tour record books for all the wrong reasons.
Instead of becoming the first player to win three World Golf Championships in one year, he tied a record for losing the largest lead in the final round. Six shots clear of the field, Johnson didn’t make a single birdie on a wild, wind-blown Sunday for a collapse that even Rose didn’t see coming.
Only when he saw a leaderboard behind the 14th green and realized he was three shots behind did Rose think he might have a chance. He got up-and-down with a tough bunker shot for birdie. He made a 10-foot par save at the 15th to stay in the game. He birdied the next two holes.
As Rose was signing for a 5-under 67, he looked up and saw Johnson’s last hope for eagle on the 18th tumble off the side of the green and into the water.
“It’s the kind of day you certainly don’t expect,” Rose said after his two-shot victory. “It’s the kind of a day you hope for – dream for – but a lot of things need to go your way in order for a day like today to happen, coming from eight shots behind, especially going against a player like DJ.”
Johnson certainly did his part. He shot 77, his highest final round with the lead since an 82 at Pebble Beach in the 2010 U.S. Open.
“I just could never get anything going and didn’t hole any putts,” Johnson said. “It was pretty simple.”
It was simply stunning.
Johnson matched the record for losing a six-shot lead, most recently by Sergio Garcia at Quail Hollow in 2005, most famously by Greg Norman in the 1996 Masters.
The one-man show turned into a four-man race in the final hour, and Rose seized on it with a 31 on the back nine. He finished at 14-under 274. Johnson tied for second with Henrik Stenson (70) and Brooks Koepka (71), who also had their chances.
Only two other players in PGA Tour history have come from more than eight shots behind on the final day to win – Paul Lawrie (10 shots) in the 1999 British Open and Stewart Cink (nine shots) at Hilton Head in 2004.
“It was the perfect type of weather conditions to make a comeback,” Rose said. “This is the type of day when you are playing with a lead, every hole seems difficult. Obviously, someone is still capable of playing a special round of golf. And my back nine was just amazing today.”
The signature shot was a 5-iron he purposely threw up into the wind on the par-3 17th and watched it land some 3 feet behind the hole. That gave him the lead over Stenson, and no one caught him.
Stenson, who tied for the lead with a two-putt birdie from just short of the 16th green, ballooned his tee shot on the 17th and was well short and to the right, leading to a bogey. Koepka was within one shot of the lead until the wind switched on him at the 15th and deposited his shot into a plugged lie in the bunker. He blasted out to the fringe and took three putts from 30 feet for double bogey.
Rose won for the first time since capturing the gold medal at the Olympics last summer in Rio de Janeiro. He now has won every year since 2010.
The HSBC Champions sure didn’t look like a tournament where he would keep that streak going, not when he was eight shots behind going into the final round against Johnson, who has been No. 1 in the world since running off three straight victories against strong fields in the spring.
Nothing went right for Johnson.
He made bogey on No. 1. He drove into the water on the par-5 second and had to scramble for bogey. Still, he made the turn at 15 under and had a three-shot lead, and he was driving it down the middle and long on every shot. He fell apart on the par-5 14th, when he chunked a short iron for his second shot and had to get up-and-down for par, bogeyed the 15th from the bunker, and then hooked an iron into deep rough on the 16th.
His flop shot was a yard short of being perfect. Instead, it went into a bunker and he made another bogey.
“That wind was blowing hard,” Stenson said. “On this golf course, if you hit the wrong shot at the wrong time, it’s going to penalize you. Certainly it penalized DJ a number of times today. That’s why he came back to the rest of us. I played pretty strong, and then I hit one bad shot with possible the wrong club on 17. That kind of ended my chances to win the golf tournament.”
Rose won his second World Golf Championships title – the other was at Doral in 2012 – and moved to No. 6 in the world. Johnson gets a month off to consider one that got away from him in an ugly manner.
SHANGHAI – As part of a promotional stunt for the HSBC Champions earlier in the week, Dustin Johnson was among three players wearing superhero capes on a hotel roof, suspended by ropes a few feet in the air against a backdrop of downtown Shanghai at night.
“I should have pushed him off the platform,” Henrik Stenson said with a laugh.
That might have been the only way to stop the world’s No. 1 player from more domination in the World Golf Championships.
All it took was one hole Saturday for Johnson to seize control on a blustery day at Sheshan International, along with some help from Brooks Koepka. A four-shot swing on the par-5 eighth hole – a birdie for Johnson, a triple bogey for Koepka – sent Johnson on his way to a 4-under 68 and a six-shot lead going into the final round.
His only big number was not all his doing.
Johnson’s drive down the right side of the 10th hole hit a cart path and took a hard bounce over a wall and into the bushes, leading to double bogey. Otherwise, it was the same recipe that took him to No. 1 in the world – big tee shots, control of his short irons and just enough putts to make him look tough to catch.
“I’m not going to change anything – play the golf course just how I’ve been playing it,” said Johnson, who has 22 birdies in 54 holes and was at 17-under 199. “I’m in a good position going into tomorrow, but I’m still going to have to go out and play a really solid round if I want to get it done.”
At stake is a chance to become the first player to win three World Golf Championships in the same year, a feat not even Tiger Woods with his 18 World Golf Championships managed to accomplish.
Johnson won the WGC-Mexico Championship and the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Texas.
He has made this look like a formality.
“He’s going to wake up in good shape and go ahead and play a solid round of golf. If he does that, the tournament is over,” said Justin Rose, who played in the final group with Johnson and stumbled to a 72 to fall eight shots behind. “Other than that, playing for second barring something crazy from him.”
The crazy part belonged to Koepka.
Koepka, the U.S. Open champion and Johnson’s close friend and neighbour, ran off three straight birdies to start the third round and built a two-shot lead. Johnson answered with a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-3 fourth. His drive on the par-4 seventh came up just short into the rough, and he hit a nifty flop-and-run to about 3 feet for another birdie to tie for the lead.
And then after a lengthy wait on the tee at No. 8, it all changed.
With the wind at the players’ backs, and with sheer power of Johnson and Koepka, the line of the tee shot was over trees that have grown so tall in recent years they block the view of the landing area. Johnson hammered his tee shot and knew from experience he was fine.
Koepka caught his drive on the toe and it turned over from right-to-left and knew he was in trouble.
His caddie ran down toward the area to see if he had a shot, and quickly realized it was gone. Koepka hit his third shot from the tee, and then his fourth turned left into the hazard again. Koepka thought about a high-risk attempt out of the mess, but figured his best option was to take another penalty and go back to the fairway. It worked well until Koepka missed a 6-foot putt and took his 8.
Koepka had company in making a big number. Patrick Reed opened with a triple bogey and had four double bogeys on his way to an 82. Si Woo Kim made an 11 on No. 8.
More bothersome to Koepka was missing birdie chances on Nos. 9 and 11 and par chances on Nos. 10 and 12, which he felt could have helped him stay close.
“It was definitely windier today,” he said. “I didn’t think it was playing that difficult. Definitely should be able to shoot 4 under out here, minus a triple and whatever else I had, a lot of bogeys.”
There were too many bogeys to keep up with Johnson, who never let anyone closer to him the rest of the day.
Koepka went from the bunker into the water on the 18th and had to scramble to save bogey, giving him a 73. He’s still in the final group with Johnson, just like he had hoped. They have never competed against each other down the stretch, and barring a great start by Koepka or a stumble by Johnson, that probably won’t be the case Sunday.
Stenson, who is finally starting to round into form, birdied three of his last five holes for a 69.
“If Dustin keeps on playing the way that he’s done this week, I think it’s going to be a one-man show tomorrow,” Stenson said. “But you never know. Tough wind, and this golf course has a couple of holes where you can certainly have a number. It’s never over until it’s over.”
SHANGHAI – Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka, close friends who live down the street from each other in Florida, are in the final group going into the weekend at the HSBC Champions. They are separated by one shot, so it might feel like one of their money matches when they play together at home.
There’s just one problem with that.
“We don’t really play much golf,” Johnson said after his 9-under 63 for a one-shot lead Friday at Sheshan International. “We go to the gym and we hang out, but we don’t go to the golf course together. We played last Saturday, and that was the first time we played in … I couldn’t tell you how long. All year, probably.”
They won both their matches as partners at the Presidents Cup, and Koepka says they saw each other for 14 out of their 21 days at home.
It just didn’t involve much golf.
That figures to change at the final World Golf Championships event of the year, and it could be quite a show.
Johnson, the No. 1 player in the world who has been alternating between two putters over the last few putts, brought a third option to Shanghai. This had a mallet head, and it lasted all of one round. So he got a fourth one – a TaylorMade Spider with a metal insert that wasn’t quite as soft as the version he used to win three straight times in the spring. He hit a few putts, went onto the course and made just about everything.
“The guys here in China made me one. I got it right before I walked to the tee,” Johnson said. “I hit a few putts on the practice green with it and I was like, ‘Oh, this will work pretty well.’ Went out and holed a lot of putts today, so I kind of like it.”
Two of his closing birdie putts were in the 15-foot range, and he finished with a 5-foot slider on the 18th to reach 13-under 131.
Koepka, who led after the first round with a 64, had what he referred to as a relatively boring day, at least in the middle. He opened with two straight birdies, followed with 13 consecutive pars, and then birdied two of his last three holes for a 68.
They will be joined by Justin Rose (68), making that three of the last five U.S. Open champions in the final group Saturday.
Johnson and Koepka are naturals as friends. Both cut supremely athletic figures and are among the biggest hitters in golf. Neither gets overly worked up over anything. Their celebrations are subdued, even when winning U.S. Opens.
Koepka talks a little more, which is not much. He was one shot behind going into the final round of the U.S. Open and Johnson called him that Saturday night. Koepka described it as a “long phone call for us. It was like two minutes.” It was a rare conversation about golf. Johnson simply told him that he was playing well and not to worry about anything else.
“We both kind of have the same attitude,” Koepka said. “We’re not going to take things too seriously. We like to relax. We like to work out. We’ve got the same interests, and that makes it easy. To be honest with you, I don’t think we’ve ever really talked about golf. Maybe when we play practice rounds, that’s about the only time we ever talk about golf. When we’re away, we’re away and I think that’s kind of one of the beauties of our friendships.”
Johnson won the HSBC Champions in 2013, and he looks formidable when he’s making putts, as was the case on Friday. After a relatively slow start, with birdies on both par 5s on the front, he ran off seven over his last nine holes for a 29 on the back nine. The two holes he failed to birdie were No. 11, where he missed a 10-foot birdie putt, and the par-5 14th, where he had 6-iron into the green for his second shot.
Koepka felt as though he left his share of shots out there, too. On three of the par 5s, he missed birdie chances from 8 feet or in.
Kiradech Aphibarnrat of Thailand had a 70 and joined Rose at 9-under 135. Patrick Reed, who has gone 14 months without winning, shot 70 and was six behind.
Johnson and Koepka first played together in the third round of the 2014 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2, a vague memory for Koepka. He just remembers Johnson having to hit one shot left-handed, and neither of them having much of a chance against Martin Kaymer that week.
They last played together in the opening two rounds at Firestone in the Bridgestone Invitational, though they are regulars in practice rounds at the majors. Koepka would like nothing better than for them to have a chance on the final nine Sunday.
“I have no problem breaking Dustin’s heart. I can promise you that. I’m sure he’d say the same thing if he was sitting up here,” Koepka said. “We both have a lot of fun off the golf course, but when it comes to golf, I think we both want to kick each other’s butts. There’s no mercy out there. When we both show up, I think we’re both expecting to win.”
Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., slipped 17 spots down the leaderboard following a 2-over-par 74 to sit T38.
SHANGHAI – The HSBC Champions is the first stop for Brooks Koepka on his four-week Asian adventure that will include two weeks on the beaches of Vietnam and Thailand and a title defence in Japan.
Splotches of mud on his shirt were evidence that it started with a wild ride at Sheshan International.
“Yeah, I had some fun in the water,” he said.
Koepka played so beautifully on Thursday that the U.S. Open champion had reason to believe his 8-under 64 for a one-shot lead could have been much lower. He burned the edge of cup on a few birdie putts, missed one birdie attempt from 4 feet and turned a certain birdie into an aggravating bogey when he three-putted from 4 feet on No. 3.
But he got away with his worst swing of the day.
Wanting to play conservatively on the par-5 eighth, Koepka hit 3-iron off the tee and pulled it so badly that he disappeared down the banks of a winding stream along the entire left side of the fairway. Enough of the golf ball was showing from the shallow stream that he removed his shoes and tried to whack it out. He did well enough to advance it some 50 yards, leaving him 275 yards remaining over a pond that guards the front of the green.
Koepka hammered a 3-wood right at the flag, and the ball settled about 20 feet behind the cup. He made it for birdie and a wry smile.
“It was an interesting hole to say the least,” Koepka said. “I hit an awful 3-iron, hit it in the water and was lucky enough to at least hit it and advance it and hit a great 3-wood in there just past the pin. We were laughing. It was almost kind of destiny to make that putt.”
Along the way, he ticked off another goal for 2017 – the lead to himself after the opening round.
It wasn’t much – just one shot over Kiradech Aphibarnrat of Thailand and Gavin Green of Malaysia – but it was where he wanted to be.
“Any time you can get off to a good start and be close to the lead or have the lead, that’s what you want,” Koepka said.
Kiradech dressed in black out of respect to the five days of funeral ceremonies back home for King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died last October. This week ends a year of mourning, and Thais throughout the country were clad in back in honour of the late king.
Kiradech made 10 birdies, including seven in a row around the turn.
“I wore all black today as my own tribute,” Kiradech said. “It is a special day as the final day of official mourning. It would be a great honour if I could win and take this trophy back to Thailand and dedicate it to our late king.”
Patrick Reed and Haydn Porteous of South Africa were at 66, while the group at 67 included Matt Kuchar and Justin Rose.
“Drove it well. Found a lot of fairways,” Kuchar said. “If you’re not playing in fairways, you’re just hoping for pars.”
Koepka would have taken one on No. 8, and instead he did one better.
The rest of the round – except for that three-putt bogey from 4 feet – was crisp for Koepka considering he had not played since the Presidents Cup.
Starting on the 10th hole under abundant sunshine at Sheshan International, he capped off the back nine with a 7-iron into 20 feet on the 17th for birdie and then a massive drive on the par-5 18th that left him only a 6-iron to 20 feet, which he holed for an eagle.
He already was 6 under for the round and looked to go even lower with a shot into 4 feet at No. 3, only to walk away with bogey.
“I felt like I played really well,” he said. “I drove it pretty well and putted extremely well except for litlte hiccup.”
Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson were among those at 68. Johnson, who won this World Golf Championship in 2013, was moving closer to the lead until his wedge into No. 8 went just over the green, his chip ran 6 feet by and he took a bogey. It was on this hole two years ago that Johnson’s shot hit the pin and caromed back into the water, which he says is the most irritated he’s ever been on the golf course.
Defending champion Hideki Matsuyama opened with a 74.
Kiradech didn’t feel his game was sharp except for the putter, which can atone for a lot. He mainly was happy with his start, and his ambitious goal to honour the king the best way he can by bringing home the trophy.
“It’s not an easy situation because it’s hard to explain how deeply our king was loved, and how sadly he is missed,” Kiradech said. “He will always hold a special place in my heart, but he loved sport and he would have been the first to stay the show must go on.”
Canada’s Adam Hadwin recorded a 3-under 69 to hold a share of 21st, five back of the leader.
MONZA, Italy – Australia’s Marcus Fraser carded the lowest round of his European Tour career to take a share of the lead at the midway point of the Italian Open on Friday.
Fraser produced nine birdies – including five consecutive in the middle of his round – and no bogeys for a second-round 62 that took him to 13-under.
“To come and do that today, I’m pretty proud of myself and it’s quite reassuring that I still can play golf,” said Fraser, a three-time European Tour winner ranked a dismal 136th in the Race to Dubai.
“I felt like I’ve putted well and scrambled well this week,” Fraser added. “Today I took it to a new level with the putter.”
Open de Portugal winner Matt Wallace was also at 13-under following a bogey-free 65.
“I just played good golf out there today and it’s perfect weather for us to shoot low,” Wallace said.
Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Jamie Donaldson are each two strokes behind, while defending champion and home favourite Francesco Molinari was one stroke further back in fifth.
Donaldson had the shot of the day when he used his driver off the fairway on the ninth, his final hole, and hit to within 18 inches from 291 yards.
Masters champion Sergio Garcia and last week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship winner Tyrrell Hatton were among five players tied for sixth four strokes back.
Having entered the Rolex Series, the tournament features an increased purse of $7 million this year as part of the buildup to the 2022 Ryder Cup outside Rome.
Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn was among those set to miss the projected cut of 2-under, a fate shared by the elder Molinari brother, Edoardo, Martin Kaymer, Oliver Fisher, Padraig Harrington and Danny Willett.
Canadian Austin Connelly fired a bogey-free 6-under 65 to jump into a five-way tie for sixth.
SPIJK, Netherlands – Romain Wattel shot a steady 2-under 69 Sunday to finish 15 under and win the KLM Open, the Frenchman’s first victory in 187 tournaments on the European Tour.
Wattel, who posted a 7-under 64 to move into contention on Saturday, had four birdies and two bogeys in the final round and parred his final seven holes to close out his maiden win.
The 26-year-old Frenchman said he has been struggling for two years with his putter, but finally found his touch again this week.
“My putting was very, very good,” he said, “I knew that if I could get to the green in regulation I was fine.”
Overnight leader Kiradech Aphibarnrat of Thailand blew his chance of victory by finding the water and shooting double bogeys on the 15th and 18th holes. He finished on 12 under in a five-way tie for ninth.
Aphibarnrat was in the middle of the fairway on the 18th, but dumped his second shot into the water as he attempted to reach the green in two. He slammed his club into the grass and hung his head as he walked after the ball.
Aphibarnrat’s implosion on the 18th left Austin Connelly of Canada alone in second place after he shot his second consecutive round of 66 to finish one shot behind Wattel. Connelly discussed his chances at securing a European Tour card in his post-round interview here.
Six players, including Lee Westwood and fellow Briton Eddie Pepperell, tied for third at 13 under.
