Overnight leader Jake Roos maintained his spot atop the leaderboard of the Sun City Challenge at the Gary Player Country Club, despite relentless pressure from the chasing pack on Thursday.
He shot a one-under-par 71 second round to take his total to seven-under for the week to usurp Riekus Nortje, who had temporarily occupied top spot on moving day. A bogey on the fifth, seventh and 15th holes undid the gains Roos made with his four birdies on the day.
‘I didn’t have my best round, but I still played nicely; my game is feeling good. I only got one under today and I saw there were a couple of guys close to me, so I think it will be a nice round tomorrow.
‘I was not quite as smooth as yesterday. I made a couple of mistakes today and one or two shots not as pure as yesterday, but still made one or two nice putts.’
With Nortje signing for four-under-par 68 and moving to six under for the week, it became a very tight affair at the top, and resilience was required if Roos was to reclaim top spot. “It felt like I hung in there well, and the attitude was good and I felt like I was in a good mental space.
‘There were one or two situations where I could have made a big number. It’s a tough golf course this, so if you start going offline or hit the wrong shots, you can get into big trouble around here. I was happy with keeping it together today.’
Nortje, on the other hand, made two bogeys all day and he too, felt he might have left a few out there. ‘I didn’t hit the ball as well as I would have liked,’ he said, ‘but going into tomorrow there’s quite a bit of confidence.’
Despite not being entirely happy with how he hit the ball on Thursday, Nortje is happy to be in contention ahead of the final round in Sun City. ‘You don’t want to be far behind, especially around this course,’ he notes, ‘if you get within one or two of the lead, it will be great and I feel pretty good going into the final round.’
Jacques Kruyswijk lies third on five under, while Danie van Niekerk and Peter Karmis occupy fourth spot on four under for the week. Veterans Jean Hugh and Keith Horne share sixth, with Tyrone Ferreira and Breyten Meyer on three under. Taking the 10th spot are Alex Haindl, Jared Harvey, Louis de Jager, Justin Harding and Christiaan Basson.
Second round leaderboard:
137 – Jake Roos 66 71
138 – Riekus Nortje 70 68
139 – Jacques Kruyswijk 71 68
140 – Danie Van Niekerk 70 70, Peter Karmis 71 69
141 – Jean Hugo 68 73, Tyrone Ferreira 68 73, Keith Horne 71 70, Breyten Meyer 69 72
142 – Alex Haindl 73 69, Jared Harvey 68 74, Louis de Jager 73 69, Justin Harding 71 71
143 – Omar Sandys 69 74, Jbe’ Kruger 71 72, Ulrich van den Berg 74 69, Gert Myburgh 70 73
144 – Jaco Prinsloo 68 76, Haydn Porteous 67 77, Christiaan Basson 70 74
145 – MJ Viljoen 72 73, Desne Van Den Bergh 74 71, Neil Schietekat 69 76, Zander Lombard 73 72, Anthony Michael 73 72, Adilson Da Silva 68 77
146 – Matthew Spacey 74 72, Andre Nel 76 70, Jean-Paul Strydom 71 75, Sipho Bujela 76 70, Mark Murless 70 76, Michael Palmer 71 75, Dean Burmester 79 67, Jacquin Hess 69 77, Combrinck Smit 74 72
147 – Tyrone Ryan 73 74, Rourke van der Spuy 75 72, Mark Williams 67 80, Hennie Otto 75 72, Andrew van der Knaap 70 77, Titch Moore 73 74, Wynand Dingle 76 71, Jason Froneman 75 72, Ryan Tipping 72 75, Makhetha Mazibuko 71 76, Jason Viljoen 71 76, Scott Campbell 74 73
Missed the cut:
148 – Vaughn Groenewald 75 73, Ruan de Smidt 73 75, Oliver Bekker 72 76, Musiwalo Nethunzwi 75 73, PH McIntyre 75 73, Daniel van Tonder 75 73
149 – Stephen Ferreira 69 80, Allan Versfeld 76 73, Dongkwan Kim 75 74, Callum Mowat 79 70, Ockie Strydom 76 73, James Kamte 73 76
150 – Antonio Rosado 77 73, Aubrey Beckley 72 78, Jaco Mouton 73 77, JJ Senekal 77 73, Coert Groenewald 71 79, Keenan Davidse 72 78
151 – Matthew Carvell 80 71, Jake Redman 73 78, Chris Swanepoel 75 76, Damon Stephenson 77 74, Bradford Vaughan 72 79
152 – Michael Hollick 80 72, JC Ritchie 77 75, Lyle Rowe 75 77, Wallie Coetsee 75 77, Luke Jerling 76 76, Desvonde Botes 74 78, Heinrich Bruiners 74 78, Madalitso Muthiya 72 80, Merrick Bremner 73 79, Theunis Spangenberg 77 75, Ryan Cairns 79 73, Colin Nel 74 78, Irvin Mazibuko 76 76
153 – Herman Loubser 77 76, Antonio Costa 76 77, Steven Ferreira 77 76, Cody Martin 78 75, Teaghan Gauche 79 74, Hennie du Plessis 71 82
154 – Jason Diab 77 77, Dayne Moore 76 78
155 – Andrew Curlewis 75 80
156 – Allister de Kock 75 81, Rhys West 76 80
157 – Stefan Engell Andersen 79 78, Toto Thimba 74 83, Matias Calderon 76 81, Gerard du Plooy 79 78
158 – Francois Coetzee 75 83, Charl Coetzee 78 80
160 – Dwayne Basson 74 86, Marc Cayeux 81 79, Doug McGuigan 77 83, Kyle Pilgrim 77 83
162 – N.J. Arnoldi 82 80
169 – Sean Bradley 82 87
WDN – Altaaf Bux 82 WDN
RTD – Zack Byrd 77 RTD
