MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Lucas Herbert again led the way after the second round of the Australian Open while South Korean amateur Hyojin Yang birdied her final hole to take the lead at the Women's Australian Open being played concurrently at two courses on the famed Melbourne sand belt.
The tournaments are using alternating tee times — and with level prize money for the second consecutive year — at the par-72 Kingston Heath (par-73 for the Women’s Open) and par-71 Victoria Golf Club.
First-round leader Herbert shot 66 Friday at Kingston Heath for a two-round total of 14-under 129 and had a four-stroke stroke lead heading into the weekend, when only Kingston Heath will be in play.
American Ryggs Johnston was in second place after a 68 at Victoria. Elvis Smylie, who won last week’s Australian PGA championship at Royal Queensland, shot 64 at Kingston Heath and was tied for third, five strokes behind Herbert.
Fellow Australian and 2022 British Open champion Cameron Smith shot 72 at Kingston Heath and had a bad run on his back nine after his group which included Smylie was warned for slow play. Smith was eight strokes behind his fellow LIV Golf teammate Herbert after two rounds.
Smith had bogeys at 10, 12 and 15 as well as a double bogey at 16 on the Kingston Heath course that will host the 2028 Presidents Cup.
“We got on the clock there and it didn’t seem like we were playing that slow, and it felt like we were just rushing,” Smith said. "Made some really poor choices mentally, I think, led to a few bogeys. You, kind of, get on that train in that wind and it’s not a good spot to be in.”
Defending men’s champion Joaquin Niemann had a 66 Friday at Victoria and was at 4-under, 10 strokes behind.
In the Women's Australian Open, Yang shot 71 at Kingston Heath and had a two-round total of 9-under 136 to lead by a stroke. Jiyai Shin was tied for second after a 68 at Kingston Heath.
Hannah Green, the 2019 Women's PGA Championship winner, finished with two birdies for a 71 at Victoria and was two strokes behind in fourth.
"It was nice to at least finish with two par-5s and be able to get two birdies to finish on a positive note and good momentum going into the weekend,” Green said.
Defending women's champion Ashleigh Buhai shot 68 and was at 4-under, five strokes behind. At one point in the first round the South African player had fallen nine strokes out of the lead.
LPGA Tour regular Minjee Lee shot 74 at Victoria and was at 3-over while her brother, PGA Tour player Min Woo Lee, had a 69 at Victoria and was at 3-under.
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Joaquin Niemann of Chile plays a second shot on the 7th hole during the second round of World Tour Golf Championship in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov arrived in North Korea on Friday for talks with North Korean military and political leaders as the countries deepen their alignment over Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The defense ministry in announcing the visit didn’t specify who Belousov would be meeting or the purpose of the talks. North Korean state media didn’t immediately confirm the visit.
Belousov, a former economist, replaced Sergei Shoigu as defense minister in May after Russian President Vladimir Putin started a fifth term in power.
Photos released by Russia’s Defense Ministry showed Belousov walking alongside North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol on a red carpet laid out at a Pyongyang airport. North Korean military officials were seen clapping under a banner that read: “Complete support and solidarity with the fighting Russian army and people.”
The visit came days after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol met with a Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov in the South Korean capital of Seoul and called for the two countries to formulate countermeasures in response to North Korea’s dispatch of thousands of troops to Russia in support of its fight against Ukraine. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in recent months has prioritized relations with Russia as he tries to break out of isolation and strengthen his international footing, embracing the idea of a “new Cold War.” The United States and its allies have said North Korea has sent more than 10,000 soldiers to Russia in recent weeks and that some of those troops were engaging in combat.
North Korea has also been accused of supplying artillery systems, missiles and other military equipment to Russia that may help Putin further extend an almost three-year war. There are also concerns in Seoul that North Korea in exchange for its troops and arms supplies could receive Russian technology transfers that could potentially advance the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program.
Yoon’s national security adviser, Shin Wonsik, said in a TV interview last week that Seoul assesses that Russia has provided air defense missile systems to North Korea in exchange for sending its troops.
Shin said Russia has also appeared to have given economic assistance to North Korea and various military technologies, including those needed for the North’s efforts to build a reliable space-based surveillance system, which Kim has stressed as crucial for enhancing the threat of his nuclear-capable missiles targeting South Korea. Shin didn’t say whether Russia has already transferred sensitive nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technologies to North Korea.
Yoon’s office hasn’t said whether the two governments discussed Seoul’s possible weapons supply to Ukraine during his talks with Umerov.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, South Korea has joined U.S.-led sanctions against Moscow and provided humanitarian and financial support to Kyiv. But Seoul has avoided directly supplying arms, citing a longstanding policy of not giving lethal weapons to countries actively engaged in conflicts.
Yoon has said his government will take phased countermeasures, linking the level of its response to the degree of Russian-North Korean cooperation.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether Belousov would meet Kim, the North Korean leader. Last year, Kim hosted a Russian delegation led by then-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and gave him a personal tour of a North Korean arms exhibition, in what outside critics likened to a sales pitch.
That event came weeks before Kim traveled to Russia for a summit with Putin, which sped up military cooperation between the countries. During another meeting in Pyongyang in June this year, Kim and Putin signed a pact stipulating mutual military assistance if either country is attacked, in what was considered the two countries’ biggest defense deal since the end of the Cold War.
The Russian report about Belousov’s visit came as South Korea scrambled fighter jets to repel six Russian and five Chinese warplanes that temporarily entered the country’s air defense identification zone around its eastern and southern seas, according to the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The joint chiefs said the Russian and Chinese planes did not breach South Korea’s territorial airspace.
In this photo taken from a video released by Russian Defense Ministry press service, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, right on the red carpet, is welcomed by North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol, left on the red carpet, upon his arrival at Pyongyang International Airport outside of Pyongyang, North Korea Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (Russian Defense Press Service via AP)
In this photo taken from a video released by Russian Defense Ministry press service, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, left, is welcomed by North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol upon his arrival at Pyongyang International Airport outside of Pyongyang, North Korea Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (Russian Defense Press Service via AP)
