Moore merrier as Clarke dares to scrape in with late eagle

SOUTH AFRICA’S Titch Moore overcame a shaky start to lead by two shots at the halfway stage of the SAA Open at the Royal Durban Country Club.

Ireland's Ryder Cup star Darren Clarke had a pretty frustrating day, until the thought of missing the cut brought out the class in him. He sunk a 30-foot monster putt for eagle on the 18th to sneak in the back door.

Best of the Irish was Stephen Browne, who followed up his poor 78 on the opening day with a fine 67 for a 145 total. Gary Murphy is a shot furthe back on 146 after a 74 while Ciaran McMonagle and Philip Walton missed the cut.

Moore, the 28-year-old known for making spectacular first-round scores before fading away in later rounds, looked as if his reputation had preceded him as the afternoon session began.

He twice found the bunker on the third and the sixth, dropping a shot on each as he scrambled toward the hole and while he birdied the seventh with a wedge which left the ball 12 inches from the pin, his tee shot on the ninth went way left and landed under some heavy brush.

But not one to give up, Moore simply put his head down and headed forth, grabbing four birdies on the back nine to post a respectable 70 on a difficult day to keep him at the top of the leaderboard for another night.

Moore leads by two from another local lad in Hendrik Buhrmann, who shot a 67 to end on seven under.

Behind them was a group of five players on six under including day one co-leader Bruce Vaughan of America and another South African Louis Oosthuizen.

English hopes were dashed when Malcolm Mackenzie had a nightmare round for a 76 to drop him down the leaderboard. But Graeme Storm on five under and Neil Cheetham a shot back will provide the best of the British challenge.

Moore described afterwards how he pulled himself out of what looked to be a difficult day at the office.

"I was trying to hang in there because I wasn't playing that well," he said.

"I actually did well to make pars at the first two holes before I bogeyed the third but I knew there were always opportunities coming back down the final few holes, so I was just trying to hang in there.

"I was trying to get it back to even for the day and to be honest to be two under with a nice finish was really good. It was pretty frustrating because I couldn't seem to get myself into the game.

"The short game has been great all week but I just couldn't seem to get the ball into play."

Buhrmann was happy with the upturn in his game, after finding it difficult to find some form in recent weeks.

"I've had a lot of injuries recently and it's been giving me a lot of trouble," he said.

"But this year I'm looking forward to working hard on the game and it's looking good."

Vaughan surprised everyone, including himself in the first round, by posting a 65 in his first competitive round since six reconstructive knee surgeries kept him out of the game for more than a year.

But while things went his way on day one, Vaughan was not as lucky on day two, and he admitted his knee was plaguing him once more.

"My knee hasn't really woken up this morning, it is kind of sore but that is no real excuse because I hit a lot of bad shots," he admitted.

"I hit a lot of poorer shots than I did yesterday and didn't putt very well. Even with that, on the eighth hole and the 14th hole I had three irons from the middle of the fairway in good positions and made a six and a five, which was not good.

"If you make two fours, there's a three-shot difference right away which is a big difference. I didn't putt as well and didn't hit it as well, but even so, this is better than sitting at home."