Chalmers’ chance for Masters

GREG Chalmers surged towards the top of the Houston Open leaderboard as he tried to make a backdoor entry into the US Masters.

Needing to win to join fellow Australians Adam Scott, Jason Day, Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith in the Masters field, Chalmers fired a brilliant seven-under par 65 at the Golf Club of Houston to fast track his way into contention.

Chalmers’ round was his lowest on the US PGA Tour since he posted the same score during the second round of the 2015 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

As he searches for his second Tour victory, the 44-yearold sits in a tie for third at 12under, two shots off the 54hole lead shared by England’s Ian Poulter and American Beau Hossler.

Poulter matched Chalmers’ 65 as the best round of the day to follow up his secondround 64 as he also tries to qualify for Augusta.

Starting his round on the 10th hole, Chalmers had successive birdies on the 11th, 12th and 13th before carding his lone bogey for the round at the par-4 17th.

He soon recovered from that lapse with a birdie on the first hole on his inward nine and picked up a further four shots and is easily the bestplaced Australian.

Chalmers missed the cut in his only Masters appearance when Tiger Woods won for the second time in 2001.

Sitting one shot behind Chalmers was a group of six players including Sweden’s Henrik Stenson (69). Jordan Spieth (71) was in a group on 10-under 206.

The day turned dark for Rickie Fowler, as the American went from being the early leader to five strokes off the pace after a round including a bogey, a double bogey and a triple bogey.