As the majority of the World Cup field backed up on super-slick Royal Melbourne greens, Day didn't bring his A-game, but hung tough with a gritty one-under-par 70 to crawl - rather than surge - into a tie for third on a course he said had "major qualities".Even though Adam Scott - after his quintuple-bogey on day one - had a horrid double-bogey six on the 11th, he also took giant strides through the field with an otherwise blemish-free 68.Scott leapt to 21st at one-over as the Australian team jumped to a tie for third after its wobbly day one.Day could have been excused for losing his cool several times when the course nipped him.But three almost unbelievable lip-outs on birdie rolls were offset by a couple of mind-bending par saves, including one up-and-down from rough 60m right on the tough 16th that almost defied belief.
World No. 2 Adam Scott watches his tee shot at the 14th.
Day's only lost stroke was in a scramble around the savagely sloping 11th green, but when the Fanatics put a smile on his face with a quick rendition of Horses on the next hole, his calm was restored."I was frustrated (after the 11th) and … this course can make you want to snap your clubs over your knees," Day said."But courses like this you have to grind out. If you shoot under par you make progress."It's so difficult, you just have to stick around and be patient. It's practically (like) playing like a major championship."You just have to bury bad shots. You have to because if you hold on to them, you make mental errors and when they start compounding, you're out of the tournament."Day, whose mother and sisters will arrive overnight for an emotional reunion after the family's tragedy last week in the Philippines, reiterated that Scott had the mettle to push up the leaderboard through the weekend.
Jason Day hits out of the rough behind a bunker on day two of the World Cup of Golf at Royal Melbourne.
And Scott, despite admitting he's tiring after a hectic homecoming schedule, insisted he would continue attacking the course, as he did yesterday with five birdies."I needed to have a decent score today and it was hard out there. I do not think there were too many great scores to be had because Royal Melbourne is playing tricky," Scott said.Scott remained confident Australia could win the teams event."It would be nice if I could play my way up there to the top few individually tomorrow and tee off around Jason (on Sunday)," he said."The teams competition … is well within our reach and six shots between two people can change very quickly so I think we are looking in good shape."
LEADERBOARDS AT END OF DAY 2
INDIVIDUAL
-8 Thomas Bjorn (Den)
-7 Kevin Streelman (US)
-4 Jason Day (Aus), Ricardo Santos (Por)
-3 Martin Laird (Sco), Stuart Manley (Wal), Matt Kuchar (US), Hideo Tanihara (Jpn)
TEAM
-10 United States
-7 Denmark
-3 Australia, Japan
-2 Portugal
E Scotland
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