Tour rookie Danny Lee has been left to fly the New Zealand flag after compatriots Michael Campbell and Mark Brown missed the halfway cut in the rain-affected Singapore Open tournament yesterday.
A second round of one-over-par 72 saw Lee scrape through to the closing two rounds of the US$5 million($6.9 million) right on the cut mark. It left the 19-year-old in a tie for 53rd place on 143, 13 shots behind the runaway leader, Englishman Ian Poulter, who has posted scores of 66 and 64.
But Campbell and Brown were well back, missing the cut mark by eight and 13 strokes respectively in the Asian and European co-sanctioned event being staged on the Sentosa course. Campbell shot 76 and 75, while Brown's successive rounds of 78 ended a miserable week.
Two lengthy rain delays meant the second round went well into the third day but Poulter extended his one-stroke first-round advantage to five shots after carding the best round of the week, a seven-under 64 to move to 12-under 130.
Swede Daniel Chopra posted 65 and Taiwan's Yih-shin Chan 68 to be second equal on seven under. Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell birdied three holes in succession from the 15th before eagling the last for a 65 to move into a share of fourth place on six under.
World No 2 Phil Mickelson posted a 71 to move into a share of 22nd place at two under.
Lee recorded two birdies but also three bogeys in his 72 to join the likes of triple major winner Padraig Harrington of Ireland and Australian Adam Scott at one over.
Campbell will now have a week off before heading to Melbourne for the Australian Masters. Brown heads to Shanghai for next week's Champions event, for which he qualified by finishing second on the 2008-2009 Australasian Tour order of merit.
Poulter is looking to move up the rankings of the European Tour's Race to Dubai. He's currently in 29th place.
