Mike Cunning edges closer to first ever Omega Tour win

By Bobby Allan Wilson

BANGKOK (JP): America's Mike Cunning edged closer to securing his first victory on the Omega Tour by firing a superb, bogey-free 65 yesterday in the second round of the US$200,000 Lexus International at Bangpoo Country Club.

Cunning, the current leader of the Omega Order of Merit and runner-up in this event last year, moved to 10 under par after posting seven birdies, and heads the leaderboard with Myanmar's Kyi Hla Han, who carded his second consecutive 67, Scotland's Kenny Walker, who returned a 68, and overnight leader Chawalit Plaphol of Thailand, who fired a two-under 70.

After starting his second round on the 10th hole, Cunning fired four birdies on the front nine for an outward 32, before returning with another three birdies for an inward 33.

"I had a great start to my round, sinking a 25-foot birdie putt on the 10th and then saving par from 30 feet on the 13th, and I think this set me up well for the rest of the day," said the 39-year-old from Arizona.

"I went home for a week to prepare specially for this event because I missed out in the play-off last year, and I'm here with the definite objective of winning. I missed one or two good birdie chances out there, but I'm certainly not complaining about how I played today."

Cunning already has eight top-ten finishes on the 1997 Omega Tour, five of them in the top-five, and in the absence of his two closest challengers on the money list, sees this event as the ideal opportunity to consolidate his lead.

"If I continue to do well this week then I'll obviously move further ahead of Jeev (Milkha Singh) and Gerry (Norquist), but there's still a lot of money to be won before the end of the Tour," added Cunning, who's best finish came in the DFS Galleria Guam Open where he was runner-up.

"I look at my lack of a victory in two ways -- I think about what I have to do to win, but then count myself lucky to have been playing so well all year. I try not to think about it too much because in golf it always seems to happen when you're least expecting it."

Kyi Hla Han moved into his strongest halfway position on this year's circuit thanks to another good performance with his putter.

"I putted well again today, though I could have had a few more birdies on the front half," said Han after firing seven birdies and two bogeys.

"These greens are in great shape and suit my long putter. I've been hitting the ball pretty well for the past month but I've not been in very good form on the greens - it's nice to be sinking a few putts and I'm pleased to be in contention going into the weekend."

Like Cunning, Walker and Plaphol toured the 7,048-yard layout without any blemishes to their cards. Walker went out in 33, and returned with a 35, while Plaphol fired one birdie either side of the turn for a pair of 35's.

Taiwan's Lu Wen-teh and Arjun Atwal of India share fifth place, two shots adrift of the leaders after carding 67 and 69 respectively, while Simon Yates of Scotland won a top-of-the- range Lexus GS 300 after firing a hole-in-one with an eight iron on the 178-yard 16th.

Selected result: 134 - Mike Cunning (USA) 69 65, Kyi Hla Han (Myn) 67 67, Kenny Walker (Sco) 66 68, Chawalit Plaphol (Tha) 64 70 136 - Lu Wen-Teh (Twn) 69 67, Arjun Atwal (Ind) 67 69 137 - Eric Meeks (USA) 70 67, Vivek Bhandari (Ind) 67 70 139 - Marciano Pucay (Phi) 73 66, Lai Ying-Juh (Twn) 71 68, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 70 69, Lee Petters (Uae) 69 70, Greg Hanrahan (USA) 68 71 140 - Simon Yates (Sco) 69 71, Wang Ter-Chang (Twn) 69 71, Toru Kinoshita (Jpn) 69 71 141 - Hsu Mong-Nan (Twn) 72 69, Craig Kamps (Rsa) 71 70, Shaifubari Muda (Mas) 71 70, Christian Pena (USA) 70 71, M. Murugiah (Sin) 69 72, Gavin Vearing (Aus) 68 73 142 - Udorn Duangdecha (Tha) 73 69, Soonthorn Sang-Ngarm (Tha) 73 69, Boonchu Ruangkit (Tha) 73 69, Yasuhiro Taguchi (Jpn) 72 70, Somyot Sukpinij (Tha) 71 71, Somkiat Srisanga (Tha) 71 71, Moon Choong-hwan (Kor) 70 72, Park Nam-sin (Kor) 70 72