WARRNAMBOOL’S Marc Leishman is looking for a strong finish to the Deutsche Bank Championship to remain well placed in the US PGA Tour’s play-offs race.
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Leishman finished the second round at three-over par for the tournament, 11 shots behind fellow Aussie Jason Day and American Ryan Palmer, who share the halfway lead.
Leishman made the halfway cut by the barest possible margin but a good third round would catapult him up a tightly- bunched leaderboard at the TPC Boston course in Norton, Massachusetts.
He is assured of a place in next week’s third play-off series event, the BMW Championship, which is only open to the top 70 in the points. If he maintained his current placing at the end of this event, he would be at 45.
Day sizzled at the start of his second round with five birdie putts on the front nine, the longest over 12 metres at the par-4 sixth.
He also dropped a pair of 1.8-metre birdies at the fourth and ninth and 4.6 metres at the par-5 second and seventh holes.
But Day took a bogey at 12 after a penalty drop and another at 14 after finishing a greenside bunker.
He sank a two-metre birdie putt at the par-3 16th to grab the lead alone but took a bogey at the par-5 18th, missing a 1.8m par putt on the second-easiest-playing hole on the course.
“It’s not playing easy,” Day said. “I made it look easy on the front nine, rolled in a lot of good birdie chances.
“On the back nine I just made a few errors. I got off to a cracking start and came home a little rough. But I’m confident heading into tomorrow.”
Day is seeking his first PGA victory after sharing or leading after 36 holes.
