AUSTRALIAN pair Lucas Parsons and Peter O'Malley powered to a four-shot lead to leave Tiger Woods in their wake at the halfway stage of the Australian Masters at Huntingdale, Melbourne, yesterday.
O'Malley, the former Scottish Open winner, blitzed the par-73 sand belt layout in seven under 66 to share the second round lead with Parsons, who added a 67 to his course record equalling nine under 64 in Thursday's opening round.
They were on 15-under 131 and have Greg Norman's low aggregate tournament record of 273, 19 under par, in their sights.
They led Canadian Rick Gibson and another Australian Shane Tait by four strokes with local star Robert Allenby at 10 under 136.
While O'Malley and Parsons were carving up the course for a second time, Tiger Woods, the main attraction, dropped shots at the 17th and 18th holes to be eight under 138 at the halfway mark and seven shots adrift of the leaders.
The halfway cut was one under par 145 with 62 players finishing under par for the opening 36 holes.
O'Malley registered his lowest 36-hole total in taming Huntingdale for a second day saying: "I could not even recall what my next best would be." When he won the 1992 Scottish Open at Gleneagles (par 70) he finished 18 under for the tournament.
"The greens are nowhere near as hard as they normally are and they are not as fast yet," O'Malley said. "It is conducive to hitting shots and not seeing them bounce as they usually do."
While Woods had thousands of fans swarming around him this week, O'Malley said that the hype surrounding the American golfing phenomenon had "fired everyone up".
Allenby, who was incensed earlier in the week when asked if he was playing for second, agreed. "Everything's Tiger, Tiger, Tiger. There are other players in the field," Allenby said.
At 10 under he is two in front of Woods, but said he was not thinking about comparisons. "I'm only satisfied that I played well, not that I finished two shots in front of Tiger," he said.
Allenby said he was finally back to the form which saw him win three times in Europe last year before he was injured in a car accident in Spain.
Parsons picked up one shot over the first nine holes yesterday before unleashing a barrage of five birdies from the 10th to the 14th holes which saw him retake the lead.
"I think I played better today than yesterday, I didn't miss a green," Parsons said. "When you shoot nine under in the first round it's very hard to keep going so I'm very happy to be where I am."
Australian bookmakers are facing a hefty £125,000 pay-out on a Woods victory, but they indicated yesterday that they would continue to seek more bets on Woods over the final 36 holes.
