The BA-CA Golf Open, presented by Telekom Austria continued to produce some unbelievable golf on its second day, as Northern Ireland’s Michael Hoey came home in 29 shots to set the 11 under lead that was soon to be equalled by home hero Clemens Prader, who played his last four holes in five under par to join Hoey at the head of the leaderboard at a sun drenched Fontana Golf Club before Spain’s Carl Suneson set a stunning course record of nine under par 62.
The two leaders carded similar second rounds, with both men starting the day from the tenth tee and playing steadily for their first nine holes before exploding into action on the way back to the clubhouse.
Hoey set the tone with a stunning run of seven consecutive threes on the front nine, finishing his round off with a par four on the eight and a birdie four on the ninth to post a second round 64, while Prader matched that number with a glorious four hole, birdie-birdie-birdie-eagle finish that saw him leap up the leaderboard and into a share of the lead, much to the delight of the home crowd at his home club.
Hoey and Prader lead Challenge Tour Number One Andrew Butterfield of England and Steven Jeppesen of Sweden by a single stroke going into the weekend, with Argentina’s Miguel Carballo and Brad Sutterfield of the USA sharing fourth place on nine under par after both players posted second 66s.
Butterfield eased his way to a four under 67 with Jeppesen posting a 65 to remain very much in the hunt for their maiden Challenge Tour victories, but it was Hoey, Prader and Suneson who rightly took the second round plaudits after three exemplary individual performances.
Up until now, Prader has had the kind of week that dreams are made of, playing with his all time hero Bernhard Langer of Germany in the ‘Super Tuesday’ exhibition event that preceded the BA-CA Golf Open, presented by Telekom Austria, and then playing some of the best golf of his career to lead his home country’s National open at his home golf Club.
“This has been an unbelievable week so far – it feels like it is my week,” Prader explaned. “I played with Bernhard Langer on Tuesday which was just a dream come true for me. He is the reason I started to play golf, ever since I saw him open the Schladming Golf Club. I was about 12 years old when I saw him that day and when I saw everyone treating him like a god I thought, ‘I want to be like him’!”
Hoey, meanwhile, gave his best impression of Langer over Fontana’s front nine with a calculated and clinical showing that saw him pick six birdies to come home in 29.
The 26 year old, currently 11th on the Challenge Tour Rankings, took a week off last week to recharge his batteries for the season’s final push, a decision that looks to have paid as he enters the home stretch of the race for The 2006 European Tour relaxed, refreshed and refocused as he chases the first professional victory that would guarantee his place on Tour next year.
“Being off last week allowed me to go and see my golf coach, Andrew Nicholson, at the Wynyard Golf Club and that has helped because he sorted a few things out in my swing, so I am glad I trusted the instincts and had a week off,” said Hoey.
“My goal between now and the end of the season is to win a tournament. I have been in good positions to win this season already and not finished it off and these things definitely play on your mind. I am not being negative, but I led going into the final round in Central America and Lake Garda, and then was close to the lead in Geneva and I haven’t won one yet.
“You have to look back on those at take what you did wrong and learn from it and improve on it. I think I got to ahead of myself and everything kind of slowed down which is something I am trying to work on. I am trying to speed things up because when you do that you tend to think less about things and it leaves less room for error.”
As the sun was setting on Fontana, Hoey and Prader looked likely to steal all the headlines, but that was before Suneson conjured his own brilliant finish to put the seal on what was a sensational course record of 62 – beating the previous best of Austria’s Markus Brier and South African Johan Kok, who both carded eight under 63s at last year’s BA-CA Golf Open, presented by Telekom Austria.
The Spaniard’s new record capped a remarkable recovery after carding a three over 74 in round one, and he is now back in contention after looking likely to miss the two under par halfway cut, which 67 players survived.
“I played awesome today,” smiled Suneson. “Nine birdies, no bogeys – it was great. The course was playing quite easy in the sense that we had a lot of short irons into the greens, so if you found the fairways, which I did because I drove the ball so well, then you could get a chance to go for the flags and when you are putting on greens as perfect as they are here then you are going to have the chance to go low.
“I shot 74 yesterday with three bogeys and 15 pars when I wasn’t playing that badly. I came out today thing that I would need to shoot around four under to make the cut and I practiced the putting for along while this morning with my coach, Jason Floyd, and once we got out there I just started making a lot of putts.
“That is the best round that I have had in my career. I think I have shot eight under 64 about four time and one 63, but that is the first time that I have done nine under. It was awesome.”
