After 14 years of living on the Isle of Man, Herman Loubser is back in South Africa and leads after the second round of the Sunshine Tour’s Final Stage Qualifying School being played at Randpark Golf Club.
The Isle of Man is 572 square kilometres in size, and has just eight registered 18-hole golf courses, but Loubser’s round of six-under-par 66 suggested if the player has talent, they can still succeed and it doesn’t matter where they come from. That score took him to 10-under-par for the week.
‘I’m very happy. The goal was just to try and play some solid golf and try to birdie that par-fives and that’s what I did today, so I’m over the moon,’ he said, ‘The only goal was just not to make bogey today,’ he said. He dropped a shot on the 16th hole which spoiled an otherwise flawless round on day two.
England’s Chris Lloyd and local amateur Luke Jerling followed closely at eight-under, with Lloyd firing four-under-par 68, while Jerling signed for six-under-par 66 to tie for second. Lloyd’s quest for a Sunshine Tour playing card is derived from his love for South Africa and he aims to claim his card and stay longer.
‘I love it here. It is my fifth week here now; I played DiData, Joburg and didn’t get into Tshwane so I went to Cape Town for a holiday for 12 days, so I’m well-rested,’ Lloyd said.
The lowest score, however, came with Botswana’s Stuart Smith who set a course record with his nine-under-par 63 to share fourth spot with amateurs Aubrey Beckley, Andre Nel and Michael Pfeifer on a total of seven-under.
‘Basically, at the beginning of the round, I kind of got a couple of putts to go in early in the round,’ he said. ‘That always helps. I can remember the last Q-School I was at, I just got a couple under. It was the same sort of thing on the front nine, and that kind of makes things easier on the back nine,’ Smith said.
Korean Dongkwan Kim’s round of six-under-par 66 was not enough to place him at the summit of the leaderboard and he had to settle for a tie with Jaco Mouton, Danie van Niekerk, NJ Arnoldi and Wynand Dingle on six-under for the week. England’s Scott Campbell, Teboho Sefatsa and American Cody Martin all finished on five-under.
