Ryan Fox has made a solid start in the final event of the European Challenge Tour for 2016: the NBO Golf Classic Grand Final at Al Mouj Golf in Muscat, Oman. He is T8 on -7 after two rounds of this € 400,000 tournament, alongside series leader Jordan Smith. Both are six behind leader Bernd Rithammer on -13, and the two play together tonight, so ideally Ryan will be looking to put a break on Smith, and get to the top of the leaderboard.
With a late withdrawal, there are only 45 players in the field, and no cut applies.
LPGA Tour
Both Lydia Ko and Ariya Jutanagarn are playing in this week’s event, the Toto Japan Classic at the Taiheiyo Club (Minori Course), near Tokyo. While final rankings for the season won’t be determined until after the CME Group Tour Championship in a fortnight’s time, this is a great opportunity for both players to take a grip on their destiny, especially as they are not currently down to play in the penultimate tournament in Mexico next week.
If Lydia can get off to a faster start – which she will need to as it is only a three round event - and avoid the end of round mistakes that have plagued her recently, she should be somewhere near the top of the leaderboard by Sunday afternoon.
Japan Tour
Michael Hendry is back in action this week in the Heiwa PGM Championship at Subhu Country Club, as the Japan Tour moves to the pointy end of the season, with a series of $NZ 3.0million tournaments. The defending champion in this event is Hideto Tanihara, who came so close to winning the NZ Open earlier this year. Hendry has started with a 73 (+3) to lie T49, thanks to two doubles on his back nine. He will be looking to do better in Round 2 today.
PGA Tour
Danny Lee returns to the Tour this week in the Shriners Hospitals Open at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas. Steven Alker is also in this: he would love to repeat the dream start he had last week, although he might be struggling to match his ace from Monday: the 1st hole at TPC Summerlin is a 408 yard par 4……