South Africa’s George Coetzee says patience will be the deciding factor for him heading into the weekend’s action of the 2020 SA Open, hosted by the City of Johannesburg, writes ANDRE HUISAMEN.
Despite shooting a solid and composed round of 69 on Friday, Coetzee, who played the Bushwillow course, admits he could’ve done better after making a double-bogey on the 14th hole.
‘It wasn’t the best day. I had to stay patient but luckily the scoreboard wasn’t moving so I wasn’t too worried about it. The wind was blowing quite a bit and you can see it in the scores today,’ said Coetzee.
The 33-year-old made a flying start on Thursday with a round of 65, which could’ve been lower if it wasn’t for a double-bogey on the 16th hole of the Firethorn course, which, according to scores, played much more difficult during the opening round.
The conditions and especially the wind with a rather wet course early on in the morning, made it somewhat difficult for the players to judge the distance of their shots.
‘The wind has been like that the whole morning; hitting seven irons where I should’ve been hitting eight irons. You just have to take it in your stride and make the most out of it,’ said the 2014 Joburg Open champion.
Coetzee, though, isn’t looking ahead to Sunday’s final round just yet where he could be in with a shot of winning the SA Open title.
‘It’s the first week of the year – we are all still a bit rusty. I am quite chuffed to be playing pretty well. I don’t have too much expectation for the week so I’ll just enjoy it.’
After his round of 2-under par Coetzee is very much in touching distance of the leaders as the players head into moving day on Saturday.
South Africa’s Daniel Greene made a significant surge during the second round and is currently at the top of the leaderboard on 9-under, alongside a whole host of international players in Harry Hall (England), Johannes Veerman (United States), Nino Bertasio (Italy) and Tapio Pulkkanen (Finland).
Coetzee is one stroke back on 8-under.
