Thunderstorm stops Spieth as Korea’s Song leads in Singapore
SINGAPORE: South Korea’s Song YoungHan led the pack at the SMBC Singapore Open yesterday as bad weather interrupted play for the second day running. A total of 78 players, including world number one Jordan Spieth, were unable to complete round two of the four-day, $1 million competition because of a thunderstorm at the Sentosa Golf Club. Play is scheduled to resume early Saturday.
Song, who leads Japan’s Shintaro Kobayashi by a stroke, carded an outstanding eight-under-par 63 after the end of the morning session to equal the Serapong Course record set by Argentine ¡ngel Cabrera in 2007. It propped the South Korean at the head of the leaderboard after he languished in the top 20, with one-under-par 70, the previous day.
Excellent putting Teeing from the front nine, Song putted two straight birdies before shooting an eagle on the 4th hole. He ended his day with five more birdies and bogeyed only once on the 12th. “It was a superb round and I really have to thank my excellent putting,” said the world number 204. “The goal is to win the tournament this week and for now, I just want to take a good rest before I come back again and hopefully play well like what I did today.” US Open and Masters Champion Spieth was only able to complete six holes, shooting a birdie in the second. He missed a par opportunity on the fourth after his shot from the tee landed on a lie between two palm trees. The American fumbled on the seventh as well, but as rain had already hit the fairways, it was not tallied into his score.
“Didn’t get off to a great start but made a good birdie on number two,” said Spieth. “I had a couple of bad putts, missed a short one on number four. On seven I got a bit unlucky. I had a perfect distance to the hole, the par five, and just when I hit my second the wind changed,” he added. “My ball came up just short of the green and when I went to play my putt, that’s when the rain came in hard almost horizontally... That’s golf, that’s weather, you can’t control that.” The 22-yearold is playing in the city-state for the first time and said his goal is to win the Singapore Open, but the field is replete with challengers, including some of Asia’s best players. The Texan, however, is playing without regular caddie Michael Greller, who is recovering from an ankle injury sustained at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii earlier this month. His agent, Jay Danzi, is standing in as his replacement. — AFP