Saudi International: Cheung holds his nerve to make cut, as Ancer keeps narrow lead in Asian Tour’s first event of year
- Abraham Ancer takes narrow one-shot lead into Saturday’s third round, with Cameron Young hot on his heels
- Cheung’s one-under-par 69 leaves him level par for the tournament and the last player to reach the weekend
Matthew Cheung barely made the cut in the first Asian Tour event of the season, finishing right on the line at level par, and said he had been “holding on for dear life” during Friday’s second round of the PIF Saudi International.
The 27-year-old was the last player to make it into the weekend at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club, after his one-under-par 69 left him in a tie for 57th.
For a while it looked as if Cheung would easily make it to Saturday, with an eagle at 18, his ninth hole of the day, moving him to three-under for the round and two-under overall.
A hybrid from 300 yards out left Cheung a putt from 18 feet that he holed for a “really nice eagle especially on that hole”.
But a bogey at the par-4 sixth created some nervous moments coming home, and another at the ninth meant that he just made it.
“I knew what I needed to do as they had scoreboards on our back nine and I didn’t think it was going to move [from level par],” he said.
“It got quite windy for us on the last seven or eight holes, so it got really difficult, so was just kind of holding on for dear life, honestly.”
