subject: Nick O'Hern keeps eye on the prize in Arnold Palmer Invitational [print this page] Nick O'Hern keeps eye on the prize in Arnold Palmer Invitational
TIGER slayer Nick O'Hern must earn more than $700,000 in his next nine tournaments to retain his exempt status on the US PGA Tour.That's a bit of pressure, even with the astronomical prizemoney on offer.
But O'Hern made a move in the right direction with a solid second round at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Friday."I've got my work to do but today was a good day," the West Australian left-hander said after a two-under-par 70 left him eight strokes from the halfway lead at Bay Hill."I've been struggling the last few weeks but my game is starting to turn around and I hit some really good shots out there."
O'Hern, 39, is playing this season on a medical exemption after undergoing major knee surgery last May.He has earned almost $40,000 in seven events, barely making a dent in the $770,000 he must accrue by his 16th event to keep his exemption.O'Hern, who twice has beaten Tiger Woods in match play, said that returning to competition after a seven-month break was more difficult mentally than physically.
"The knee's going well," he said. "It's never going to be 100 per cent again but I can play golf, walk and maybe play the odd game of tennis."It's more a mental thing, clearing the head a little bit."When you have seven months off golf, sometimes it's not as easy as you think to get back into the game."It's taken a little longer than I've been hoping for and I've been trying to force things a little rather than play my natural game and let everything take care of itself."
Queenslander John Senden was also eight strokes behind, while six of the nine Australians made the cut, including Robert Allenby, who survived by the skin of his teeth.Thinking he needed an eagle at the par-four 18th, Allenby took dead aim at the pin with a seven-iron, trying to ignore the lake guarding the green. He almost holed his shot, before tapping in for a birdie that, as it turned out, was enough to make the cut with nothing to spare.While the final hole was Allenby's salvation, it was Stuart Appleby's undoing.
Needing only a par to survive for the final rounds, he hit a poor chip shot from just off the green and made bogey.Scot Martin Laird (65) birdied his final hole to grab the halfway lead at nine-under 135, one stroke ahead of Korean KJ Choi and American Spencer Levin.
