Quayle braves elements as inclement weather suspends play

Australia's Anthony Quayle responded superbly to his opening double bogey with a hat-trick of birdies to keep pace with the leaders before the second round of the BMW Japan Golf Tour Championship Mori Building Cup on Friday was suspended due to inclement weather.

Quayle battled both strong winds and rain to regain three shots in succession from the fourth hole at the Shishido Hills Country Club to sit one-under-par for the day through nine holes and tied for fifth with his four-under-par overall.

Ren Yonezawa, who completed just six holes, held a one-shot lead over Takumi Kanaya, whom he shared the first-round lead with, at seven-under-par overall.

Yonezawa endured a roller-coaster start as he sandwiched a pair of birdies in between two bogeys in the opening four holes.

Kanaya failed to back up his birdie on the fifth hole, dropping two shots in a row after bogeying the ninth and 10th to sit one-over-par for the day through 11 holes.

South Korea's Song Young-han, who's among the fortunate ones to reach the 36-hole mark, carded a 69 after mixing two birdies with a bogey to share the clubhouse lead with Keita Nakajima, who returned a 70.

Kensei Hirata, who won the Gateway to The Open Mizuno Open last week, underlined his determination to win his second title in as many weeks by firing a 67 to move into a share of provisional fifth.

A total of 60 players will return to complete their second round scheduled at 7 am tomorrow. The third round will not start before 11.30am.

Quayle, still chasing his JGTO breakthrough, was pleased with how things panned out for him and readied himself for a long battle tomorrow.

"I got off to a bad start with wind gusts and I made double on the first hole. The wind was sort of really blowing and the rain was kind of getting heavier, so I was sort of thinking, oh, man, we're in for a pretty long day today," said Quayle.

"But I consolidated pretty well. The next couple of holes played really nicely, and then a couple of parts dropped on four, five and six, which was good.

"I think it's supposed to be really wet tomorrow, so we could play potentially more than 18 holes tomorrow, which will be pretty challenging in that sort of weather.

"So hopefully we can have a bit of a rest this afternoon and then prepare for tomorrow would be ideal."

Leading second round scores (Completed):

137: Song Young-han (Kor) 68-69, Keita Nakajima 67-70;

138: Taiko Nishiyama 68-70, Kensei Hirata 71-67;

139: Shaun Norris (Rsa) 68-71, Hiroshi Iwata 70-69, Yuki Inamori 67-72;

140: Shingo Katayama 71-69, Yosuke Tsukada 72-68, Shintaro Kobayashi 69-71.

Players yet to complete

-7: Ren Yonezawa (through six holes)

-6: Takumi Kanaya (through 11 holes)

-4: Tomoharu Otsuki (through 11 holes), Anthony Quayle (Aus, through nine holes);

-3: Kazuki Yasumori (through 16 holes), Jinichiro Kozuma (through 11 holes), Kazuya Koura (through five holes)