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NEWPORT, Wales: Little-known Australian Scott Strange
shot a 66 to lead the EPGA Wales Open following Friday’s second
round though British Open champion Padraig Harrington crashed out at
Celtic Manor.
The 31-year-old from Perth ranked
just 164th in the world notched superb rounds of 63 and 66 on the
course where Europe and America will do Ryder Cup battle in two
years’ time.
However for Irishman Harrington,
a second round 74 sent him to his first missed cut on European soil
since October 2006.
Strange leads the race for the
300,000-pound winner’s check by four from English pair Benn Barham
and Robert Dinwiddie, Spain’s Alvaro Velasco and Indian Jeev
Milkha Singh.
Former winner Robert Karlsson,
third in each of the last three tournaments and with a point to
prove after three-putting from three feet on the final green at
Wentworth on Sunday when still in with a chance to win, is in the
group one further back.
Two wins on the Asian Tour have
been the highlight of Strange’s professional career so far, but in
his first full season as a European Tour member he has already
finished joint runner-up at the Johnnie Walker Classic in India.
“I’d love to win on every
tour and to win here would be fantastic,” Strange said. “Playing
in Asia is different to here, but I’m adapting quite well.”
Asked what his first impressions
of this particular course were Strange replied: “I was swimming
down the fairways it was so wet.”
 --AFP
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