May 9: Lucas Herbert protected his overnight lead despite a wobble in the middle of his second round, carding a two-under-par 69 to reach 11-under total halfway through the second round of the $2 million International Series Japan presented by Moutai.

The 29-year-old Australian was off the blocks in a flash on Friday morning, making two birdies in his first two holes, and then adding another on the 14th, his fifth hole of the day, to reach 12-under. However, a sprayed drive on the 15th led to a double bogey, followed by a brace of bogeys on the next two. He responded with five birdies over the nest 10 holes for a round of 69.

At 11-under, the Ripper GC player was one ahead of Korea’s Younghan Song, who carded a bogey-free four-under-par 67 and moved to 10-under-par aggregate.

Another player who took advantage of the calm morning conditions at the par-71 Caledonian Golf Club was Japan’s Yuta Sugiura (67). A second consecutive four-under round moved him to eight-under par total, and three behind the leader.

Asian Tour members, Guatemala’s Jose Toledo (69) and Australia’s Travis Smyth (67), joined LIV Golf’s American stars Cameron Tringale (69) and Caleb Surratt (67) to be tied at seven-under total.

Younghan Song of Korea. Picture by Graham Uden/Asian Tour

Herbert, who matched the course record at Caledonian Golf Club in Thursday’s opening round with a 62, took solace in the fact that he made more birdies in his second round.

“Obviously, a bit up and down. It feels like a bit of a missed opportunity to get off to such a good start there, and not really capitalising on it. I felt like I could have stretched the lead out and run away a little bit and put some ground between me and the field,” said Herbert, a four-time winner on major tours across the globe.

“But I’m still leading. I still sort of fought back nicely and made some good putts there later in the round to make some birdies. So, yeah…it’s a little bit frustrating to only shoot two-under, but I made eight birdies today. I think I made seven birdies and an eagle yesterday. So, the good stuff is there. I just need to clean up some of the bad ones and I’ll be fine.”

Song, who made a hole-in-one yesterday, may not have been as spectacular in his second round, but he was solid with two birdies on either half of his round.

“My shots were solid today, so I was able to create more birdie opportunities compared to yesterday,” said the 33-year-old, a winner of the 2016 SMBC Singapore Open, which was co-sanctioned by the Asian and Japan Golf Tours.

Yuta Sugiura of Japan. Picture by Graham Uden/Asian Tour

Song, still searching for his first title on Japanese soil, said: “This is my third tournament of the year, and I usually get better as I play more events. But this course is tough – it’s really challenging to judge the wind.

“I’m not focused on winning right now. My goal this week is simply to stay committed and play with confidence.”

Sugiura, the reigning Japan PGA champion, was best-placed among the Japanese players, and the only one to be bogey-free after 36 holes.

“I was bogey-free the last two days, which is great. There are a lot of chances this week, so I’d like to make a few more of those short birdie chances I had. But overall, playing bogey-free definitely feels great,” said the promising 23-year-old.

“It wasn’t great at the start of the week, but I had a sense that it would gradually get better. I think I’ve managed to get things into a good place this week. My shots were a bit off, but I started feeling some improvement last week. Then during the practice round this week, things kept getting better little by little, and by the second round, I really felt like I was hitting it much better.”

International Series Japan presented by Moutai is the third of 10 elevated events on the Asian Tour calendar that form a pathway onto the LIV Golf League.