Friday, 17 November 2017: American Kramer Hickok has moved to a share of the lead with West Australian Jarryd Felton at the NSW Open at Luddenham.
Kramer Hickok has moved into a share of the lead at the NSW Open with back to back six-under-par 66s to punctuate his maiden trip to Australia.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe 25-year-old Texan finished with a single bogey and 13 birdies through his first 36 holes and has shown an ease with the Twin Creeks Golf and Country Club course at Luddenham despite its unfamiliarity.
"I felt like I hit it a little better than yesterday. I'm limiting the mistakes, so we'll just keep doing what we're doing," he said on Friday.
"This (course) reminds me of home. It's very similar to Texas, the typography, the grass and the weather, so I'm right at home.
"These are probably the best greens I have putt on in the last five years. These greens are so good, they are so pure. It's one of those deals where if you have an eight-footer and you miss it, it's on you."
Sharing the clubhouse lead with Hickok is West Australian Jarryd Felton, who continued his good form since the Fiji International by also carding his second six-under-par round.
"Very happy to be sitting at the top," he said.
"Fiji gave me the confidence to mix it up with the big boys in the big events. I struggled last week in Europe and it's good to find form here leading into the big events for summer.
"I had 21-under and lost last year. If I shoot 21-under I think I'll be close, if I lose then you can't do much else but yeah I'm playing well."
Equal overnight leader Victorian Brett Coletta started poorly but regathered to finish Friday where he started, at eight under.
"It was a mistake-fest on the front nine," the 21-year-old said.
"I made some errors from the get-go. The mistakes were mental errors basically, unforced errors. It was (about) just coming back from those."
One highlight of the morning's play came from the group of Coletta, American Zach Murray and veteran Michael Long who shot a combined -7 on the short par five 11th.
Murray and Coletta both eagled the hole, whilst Long scored an albatross which he needed, with his overall score at -1 and teetering on the cut line..
"We were talking about it. We'd never seen anything like it. We all made that hole look very easy," Coletta said.
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