JOSE Maria Olazabal gave himself the chance of another celebration with a superb second round 67 in the Freeport-McDermott Classic in New Orleans yesterday.
Only two weeks after having captured the Turespana Masters in Gran Canaria just the third event he played following an 18-month injury lay-off Olazabal is lying joint seventh on the eve of his return to the US Masters.
Once again, however, he dismisses talk of winning.
After having described British bookmakers as insane when they made him favourite for the Portuguese Open, where he finished fourth, the message this time from Jose was: ''No way.''
But the Spaniard was naturally delighted with his form after a ''so-so'' opening round of 72.
On the five under par halfway total of 139 he is five behind defending champion Scott McCarron and fellow American Larry Rinker, both of whom followed up their first day 65s with three under par rounds of 69 in the blustery conditions.
World No.1 Greg Norman was level with Olazabal until he double-bogeyed the last for a 74. He flew from a bunker short of the green to another over it and said: ''There was no sand it was a bad break.''
The only other European to make the halfway cut was Jesper Parnevik. He had a 69 for a three under aggregate of 141 as playing partner Costantino Rocca tumbled to a 77.
Olazabal birdied the short third from 12 feet, then had four more in a row from the eighth and following his only bogey at the 469-yard fourteenth he responded immediately by pitching to seven feet at the fifteenth.
He said: ''I played very well. I struck the ball really solid and I am very happy. It was a difficult day again the wind was blowing quite hard and this is not an easy course. I've no complaints in any department. I drove well, which is one of the my weakest parts.''
q SCOTLAND'S Pam Wright shot a two-over-par 74 to lie seven shots off the pace set by Noelle Daghe after the first round of the $500,000 Longs Drug Challenge at the Twelve Bridges club in Lincoln, California.
q STIRLING yesterday won the seventy-fifth Scottish Universities team championship over the No.2 course at Gullane. Their 10-man team went undefeated through the week to win the trophy for the tenth time in 12 years. Holders St Andrews University were runners-up.
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