An Ozaki in the lead, but it was Joe, not, as is more normal, his brother Jumbo, after 36 holes of the Taiheiyo Masters at the Gotemba course, just south of Tokyo.
Joe Ozaki is that rareity, a Japanese who plays abroad, competing mostly in America, and rounds of 67 and 68, for a total of nine-under, 135, gave him a one-stroke lead over some very dangerous challengers indeed.
Among them was, of course, Jumbo, who had Thursday's lowest round of 65, to be on 136, but, refreshingly to European eyes, the chasing group included both Darren Clarke and Lee West wood, the title holder. They had had identical scores of 68, 68, although both acknowledged that in order to win against the quality opposition present, they needed to do better than that.
Westwood's second round contained a high proportion of putts (33) mostly because he was also hitting a lot of greens. He did, however, three-putt once, on the 11th where he left his first putt 10 feet short. If that sounds like a large percentage error, it has to be born in mind that these greens are Augusta-like in their speed and there are times when, if a putt is hit hard enough to reach the hole and then fails to go in, it will inevitably go miles past.
Clarke, for instance, had 35 putts in his 68, including a classic three-putt at the 8th. He was 30 feet away after his shot to the green and watched in increasing dismay as his first attempt ran past the hole - and gathered speed. It stopped 20 feet beyond the pin, and Clarke marked it hurriedly in case it started rolling again. The Irishman said afterwards that he had not hit his iron shots so well for months.
Jose Maria Olazabal survived an air shot to get round in 70, to be on seven-under while Costan tino Rocca made the cut by one shot on 144.
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