Published July 17, 2008 on March 22, 2019

Pieters Makes His Move; Masrin Trails by One at the Maybank Championship

---

Thomas Pieters will take a one-shot lead into the weekend at the Maybank Championship after the golf course showed its teeth on Friday. The big-hitting Belgian carded four birdies and a single bogey in his second round at Saujana Golf and Country Club to move to eight under par.

“I struggled off the tee early on, at the end it was a lot better. It didn’t feel like a good day to me, I made the best of what I had. I gave myself a lot of chances but I couldn’t seem to get the ball in the hole.

“I birdied 16, the par three, it was a nice putt. But other than that I felt like I was missing putts all over. I tried not to over-read the putt on 16. When you miss a couple of putts you try to read to much into it. I just put it down, looked once, and gave it a go,” said the Belgian pro who is one half of Belgium’s World Cup of Golf winning duo in Melbourne last November, started the day two shots off the lead in sixth place.

Indonesia’s Danny Masrin remained unfazed by the prospect of going up against his more illustrious rivals as he charged up the leaderboard to trail Belgium’s Thomas Pieters by one shot in tied-second place.

Masrin, who is playing under the ASEAN invite category this week, did not display any signs of nerve as he continued to put himself in contention at the US$3 million event with his two-day total of seven-under-par 137.

After opening with a three-under-par 69 at the Saujana Golf and Country Club, the Indonesian went one better as he traded seven birdies and three bogeys to sign for a 68 and a share of second place with Spain’s Nacho Elvira.

“It’s nice to be in the first group to tee off both yesterday and today. It lets you get off to a good pace and you don’t have to worry about the groups in front of you. I had a slow start on the front nine, made some good birdies but also made some soft bogeys too and missed a few short putts. But I really got it going on my back-nine. It got a little blurry for me as I got five birdies with one three-putt bogey on a par-five there. But all in all, I’m very happy.

“I’ve focused on my processes and so far it has been really good. I’m going to treat this as another golf tournament and not put pressure on myself. I’ll go through the same routine, process. The target every day is to cut the lead as much as I can. I don’t want to think too much about the scale of the event. This is probably the biggest I’ve played. I was able to stay focused and my game plan and I did that well,” said Masrin.

American Paul Peterson made light work of the sweltering heat in Malaysia by signing for a 68 to make his move up the leaderboard and take a share of fourth place that also included Major winner Ernie Els of South Africa, Thailand’s Jazz Janaewattananond and 2014 Asian Tour Order of Merit champion David Lipsky of the United States.

Starting the day five shots off the lead, Peterson was among the early morning starters and he went off quickly by firing birdies on 11 and 18 to quickly close the gap in his opening back-nine 10.

The American, who won his only Asian Tour title in Myanmar in 2018, continued to sink even more birdies on holes one, three and five to put himself into a commanding position for the weekend rounds.

Thailand’s Prom Meesawat was also in the heat of the battle but he returned unscathed after firing a 71 to stay close to the leaders in a share of 11th place.

The weekend cut was set at even-par with 74 players making the cut.

Nicholas Fung and Gavin Green were the only Malaysians to make the cut at even-par. Fung carded a one-over 73  for total three-under 141 for a joint 22^nd spot while Green posted a two-under 70 for an even-par score of 144 for joint 55^th spot.

 

Round two scores

136 T Pieters (Bel) 67 69,
137 N Elvira (Esp) 65 72, D Masrin (Ina) 69 68,
138 L Herbert (Aus) 69 69, E Els (RSA) 68 70, J Janewattananond (Tha) 66 72, D Burmester (RSA) 68 70, M Kieffer (Ger) 71 67, P Peterson (USA) 70 68, D Lipsky (USA) 72 66,
139 S Sharma (Ind) 71 68, G Migliozzi (Ita) 71 68, S Hend (Aus) 69 70, P Meesawat (Tha) 68 71, Z Murray (Aus) 68 71, M Kawamura (Jpn) 69 70,
140 A Pavan (Ita) 69 71, O Fisher (Eng) 70 70, L De Jager (RSA) 71 69, J Suri (USA) 69 71, E Van Rooyen (RSA) 71 69,
141 T Detry (Bel) 70 71, S Rahman (Ban) 70 71, P Tangkamolprasert (Tha) 72 69, M Schwab (Aut) 66 75, N Fung (Mas) 68 73, D Fichardt (RSA) 76 65, J Veerman (USA) 72 69, K Kitayama (USA) 70 71,
142 K Broberg (Swe) 72 70, V Madappa (Ind) 70 72, B Stone (RSA) 68 74, J Smith (Eng) 74 68, B Hebert (Fra) 69 73, S Norris (RSA) 71 71, S Vincent (Zim) 70 72, A Sullivan (Eng) 72 70, P Saksansin (Tha) 68 74, M Fraser (Aus) 65 77, R Gouveia (Por) 69 73, M Pavon (Fra) 73 69, C Paisley (Eng) 71 71,
143 R Fisher (Eng) 72 71, L Slattery (Eng) 72 71, W Lin (Tpe) 73 70, J Campillo (Esp) 70 73, C Bezuidenhout (RSA) 69 74, M Southgate (Eng) 74 69, P Harrington (Irl) 70 73, S Chawrasia (Ind) 69 74, T Jaidee (Tha) 72 71, G Bhullar (Ind) 68 75, A Que (Phi) 66 77, G Coetzee (RSA) 72 71,
144 M Shin (USA) 74 70, R Fox (Nzl) 71 73, G Green (Mas) 74 70, A Wu (Chn) 71 73, K Horne (RSA) 71 73, A Sandhu (Ind) 72 72, T Pilkadaris (Aus) 69 75, M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 72 72, R Rock (Eng) 73 71, C S (Ind) 75 69, D Law (Sco) 73 71, R Karlsson (Swe) 71 73, M Lee (Aus) 73 71, H Ryu (Kor) 74 70, R Paratore (Ita) 73 71, N Colsaerts (Bel) 70 74, J Todd (USA) 73 71, M Choi (Kor) 71 73, R McEvoy (Eng) 70 74, F Zanotti (Par) 72 72,
145 D Boonma (Tha) 71 74, J Yap (Sin) 74 71, C Wood (Eng) 71 74, J Higginbottom (Aus) 71 74, R Ishikawa (Jpn) 71 74, K Joshi (Ind) 73 72, S Kjeldsen (Den) 75 70, J Dantorp (Swe) 71 74, B Henson (USA) 74 71, P Pittayarat (Tha) 75 70, S Park #604 (Kor) 70 75, D Chia (Mas) 72 73, C Nirat (Tha) 74 71,
146 R Roussel (Fra) 71 75, T Smyth (Aus) 70 76, S Kim (USA) 70 76, E Molinari (Ita) 73 73, A Björk (Swe) 73 73, A Rai (Eng) 72 74, Y Chang (Kor) 72 74, A Irawan (Mas) 76 70, A Quiros (Esp) 71 75, P Marksaeng (Tha) 75 71, S Gallacher (Sco) 74 72,
147 S Ariffin (Mas) 71 76, S Mizuno (Hkg) 73 74, A Da Silva (Bra) 72 75, Y Inamori (Jpn) 74 73, W Ormsby (Aus) 75 72, A Otaegui (Esp) 73 74, J Wang (Kor) 73 74, B Wiesberger (Aut) 71 76, B Campbell (Nzl) 75 72, M Kinhult (Swe) 70 77, S Brown (Eng) 75 72, M Korhonen (Fin) 73 74, A Atwal (Ind) 73 74, T Pulkkanen (Fin) 73 74,
148 A Chesters (Eng) 72 76, R Gangjee (Ind) 76 72, D Howell (Eng) 74 74, B Leong (Mas) 74 74, D Kataoka (Jpn) 73 75, A Arnaus (Esp) 80 68, J Kruger (RSA) 74 74, J Scrivener (Aus) 73 75, M Jiménez (Esp) 75 73, W Lu (Tpe) 73 75, J Catlin (USA) 74 74, T Bjørn (Den) 73 75,
149 R Nachimuthu (Mas) 74 75, H Tanihara (Jpn) 77 72, S Kapur (Ind) 77 72,
150 P Khongwatmai (Tha) 72 78, K De Silva (Mas) 73 77, R Lee (Can) 80 70, S Yongcharoenchai (Tha) 73 77, R Wannasrichan (Tha) 74 76, M Kokocinski (Swe) 73 77, S Othman (Mas) 76 74,
151 Y Miyazato (Jpn) 71 80, R Wattel (Fra) 75 76, R Jacquelin (Fra) 72 79, L Kim (Mas) 78 73,
152 N Bertasio (Ita) 77 75, W Choo (Mas) 75 77, J Kruyswijk (RSA) 74 78, J Poh (Sin) 75 77,
153 J Norris (Aus) 75 78, S Brazel (Aus) 74 79,
154 N Srithong (Tha) 77 77,
156 T Kaewsiribandit (Tha) 81 75, Y Aung (Mmr) 75 81, A Nazrin (Mas) 80 76, J McLeod (Aus) 81 75,
157 Y Ikeda (Jpn) 81 76, P Larrazábal (Esp) 79 78,
159 K Baharin (Mas) 81 78, S Chan (Tpe) 80 79,
** M Tabuena (Phi) 79 WD, D Nisbet (Aus) 74 RT, T Sinnott (Aus) RT 0,