Australian Masters second round leaderboard: -10 A Bland (Aus) -9 A Stolz (Aus) -5 D Gaunt (Aus) -4 S Garcia
Selected others:-1 T Woods (US), C Villegas (Col)

Garcia is trying to reverse his dramatic decline in fortunes

Sergio Garcia had his best score of the year, shooting a six-under par 65 in strong morning winds to put himself in contention at the Australian Masters.

That left him six behind Australia's Adam Bland, who added a second-round 67 to his opening 65 to lead on 10 under par at the Victoria Golf Club.

Tiger Woods is nine shots off the pace after shooting a one-over 72.

The world number two again struggled with his putting but was also let down by his iron play into the greens.

Garcia holed six birdies, made only 30 putts and missed four fairways in a performance that thrust him into contention.

"It was 65 but it wasn't the lowest I could have shot today because I hit so many good shots and I only missed one green," said the Spaniard.

The 30-year-old, who is without a win since 2008 and down at 70 in the world rankings, took a two-month break after the USPGA Championship and missed out on Ryder Cup selection.

In blustery conditions, defending champion Woods made consecutive bogeys on the back nine and failed to make many birdie chances.

"When the wind blows this hard, I tend to revert back to my old [swing] motion," Woods said. "I struggled with that. It was a little more difficult than I thought it would be.

"I over-read every putt because the greens were slower than they were yesterday and it was hard to believe that they weren't going to swing."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version