{"id":330564,"date":"2025-12-06T01:40:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T01:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/330564\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T01:40:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T01:40:09","slug":"aussie-stars-light-up-the-open-as-mcilroy-hangs-tough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/330564\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussie stars light up the Open as McIlroy hangs tough"},"content":{"rendered":"

Human highlights reel Min Woo Lee has lit up Royal Melbourne to move within a shot of the lead as his superstar playing partner Rory McIlroy briefly threatened to miss the halfway cut on a dramatic day two of the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

The stand-out moment of Lee’s second round came when he holed out with a long-range approach shot for eagle on the par-4 10th, raising both arms in triumph.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

Four holes later, McIlroy endured his lowest point when he had a rare air swing after his tee shot finished up under a ti-tree.<\/p>\n

The Northern Irishman escaped with a one-putt bogey on the second easiest hole on the course and briefly slipped below the cut line.<\/p>\n

“Honestly I can’t remember the last time I had a fresh-air shot,” McIlroy said.<\/p>\n

“Not one of my finest moments.”<\/p>\n

But McIlroy showed his class to birdie three of the last four holes, signing for a three-under 68 to make the cut by three shots at two under.<\/p>\n

Lee had four birdies to go with his hole-out eagle in a flawless six-under 65, which had him in outright third spot at eight under, a single shot behind Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (66) and Portugal’s Daniel Rodrigues, who carded the day’s low round of 64.<\/p>\n

Most of Australia’s big guns are in the thick of the action going into the weekend action, headed by Lee.<\/p>\n

Former Masters champion Adam Scott (66) rolled in a clutch par putt on the 18th to join countryman Cameron Smith (65) and Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz in a tie for fourth at seven under.<\/p>\n

Min Woo Lee plays his second shot on the sixth hole on day two.\u00a0Photo by Josh Chadwick\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

After a string of missed cuts in 2025 — including at all four majors — Smith enjoyed one of his best days of a difficult year.<\/p>\n

The 2022 British Open champion roared into contention for a first Australian Open title, capping off a great day with a curling birdie putt on the 18th.<\/p>\n

Rising Danish star Neergaard-Petersen locked into the sandbelt mindset as he took a share of the lead.<\/p>\n

Fresh off a successful first full year on the DP World Tour, Neergaard-Petersen picked up four shots in three holes early in his second round on Friday and added two further birdies coming home to sign for a 66.<\/p>\n

“It makes a difference, certainly knowing what to expect,” said the Dane, who has played several recent rounds at nearby Peninsula-Kingswood with his close friend and DP World Tour colleague David Micheluzzi.<\/p>\n

“The eagle I made today, it’s one of those shots you’re never normally thinking about.<\/p>\n

“I had a six iron and you’re landing it five steps short of the green. But that’s some of the shots you’ve got to hit here.<\/p>\n

“It’s kind of getting into that sandbelt mindset, which I think definitely helped.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Human highlights reel Min Woo Lee has lit up Royal Melbourne to move within a shot of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-330564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}