Louis Oosthuizen slowed after a bright start in round two of the Valspar Championship, an event previously kind to South Africans on the PGA TOUR.
Oosthuizen has recorded two strong finishes in the notoriously difficult event at the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook. At level par, he is six back of leaders Austin Cook and Paul Casey.
Sungjae Im, Scott Stallings, and Luke Donald are tied for third at 5-under, but SA’s best is back in a share of 34th place. If he wants to replicate Charl Schwartzel’s win here in 2016, Oosthuizen has a long way to go.
Starting at the 10th, Oosthuizen sank 36 feet worth of birdie putts on his first two holes to get into red numbers early. His day, however, did not get any better as he struggled to find fairways and greens.
Oosthuizen would go on to bogey 16 and 17, reclaim one of those shots with a 12-foot birdie to start his back nine, before failing to get up and down from the bunker at the third and then missing the fairway and green in regulation at the par-4 6th hole.
In total, he hit just a third of the greens in regulation en route to his one-over-par 72.
Dylan Frittelli joins Oosthuizen in pegging it up this weekend, and he starts just a stroke behind his countrymen. With scoring difficult, the rookie moved up 16 places after his level-par 71.
It was a round that needed grit and determination as Frittelli found just seven of the 18 greens in regulation as he made the cut on the number.
Schwartzel (74) and Presidents Cup hopeful Branden Grace both sit out the next two rounds. The former started with a double bogey early on and never recovered to get himself in a position to make a move towards the cut line.
Grace will be particularly disappointed to head home early despite a slow start to his Friday. He arrived at the 10th hole one-over, but stuck his approach from 150 yards to gimmie range to move back to level for the event.
He would go on to drop four shots in his last five holes – including a double bogey 6 at the par-4 16th – to fall out of the picture.
Joining the pair of South Africans headed for the range this weekend were the likes of Patrick Reed, Jason Day and Gary Woodland.
