JC Ritchie shrugged off an indifferent start to the second round of the Vodacom Origins of Golf at Selborne Park Golf Club to shoot a 68 and take a one-stroke lead into Saturday’s final round.
He leads on 11-under-par despite opening with a bogey on the par 5 10th. Three pars later, he dropped another shot but he followed that up with a much-needed birdie on the par 3 15th . That gain was surrendered on the 17th but turned in 37 after a birdie to end his outward nine.
‘Roller-coaster at best,’ said Ritchie, describing his round.
‘I don’t know what happened on that front nine. I was hitting the ball great at the range this morning and I got here and had no clue. A good few words to myself, trying to figure something out on the last two holes of the front nine and managed to find something to turn the back nine around and I really feel like I put it on on the back nine.’
He did exactly that because that birdie on his ninth was followed by four more on the trot from his 10th to his 13th hole. Two pars later, he found joy again, birdieing his 16th, but that birdie was followed by another dropped shot, his fourth bogey in round two. He didn’t let that distract him, though, as he bounced back with his eighth birdie of the day to pip Jaco Ahlers from the top of the leaderboard.
‘As badly as I hit it on the front nine, I hit it 10 times as good on my back nine,’ he said of the solid back nine he produced. ‘I feel like the front nine is a little bit more scorable but the wind was switching on us the entire day. It was tough figuring out the wind and that also made it difficult today.’
He will want to produce a similar, and even better, round tomorrow because lurking dangerously a shot behind him is the duo of Thriston Lawrence and overnight leader, Jaco Ahlers.
Lawrence’s six-under 66 was flawless and characterised by birdies on his fourth, fifth, ninth, 10th, 12th and 14th holes. He already has a win in the Vodacom Origins of Golf series, achieved in Stellenbosch a fortnight ago and is looking to make it two wins in three weeks.
Ahlers’ experience came to the fore once more because despite admitting to a few struggles on the greens on Friday, his two-under 70 was enough to keep him high up that leaderboard as he also aims to make it two wins this season.
Member of the Gary Player Class, Heinrich Bruiners’ bogey-free 67 catapulted him to fourth and finds himself two shots off the pace. He has not won since 2013 when he claimed a win in this series.
Second round leaderboard:
133 – JC Ritchie 65 68
134 – Thriston Lawrence 68 66, Jaco Ahlers 64 70
135 – Heinrich Bruiners 68 67
136 – Trevor Fisher Jnr 70 66, Jacques Blaauw 70 66, Allister de Kock 68 68
137 – Steve Surry 67 70, Lyle Rowe 66 71
138 – Ruan Conradie 67 71
139 – Neil Schietekat 71 68, James Hart du Preez 69 70, Ockie Strydom 69 70, JJ Senekal 69 70
140 – Wallie Coetsee 66 74, Dylan Kok 72 68, Theunis Bezuidenhout 68 72
141 – Adilson Da Silva 71 70, Madalitso Muthiya 70 71, Derick Petersen 69 72, Daniel van Tonder 71 70, Hennie Otto 72 69, Jonathan Agren 71 70, Dylan Naidoo 73 68, Fredrik From 73 68, Andre Nel 72 69
142 – Christiaan Basson 74 68, Keith Horne 73 69, Anton Haig 74 68, Kyle Barker 74 68, Rhys West 71 71, Philip Geerts 74 68, Merrick Bremner 71 71, Franklin Manchest 71 71
143 – Jean Hugo 72 71, Hennie du Plessis 70 73, Duane Keun 73 70, Breyten Meyer 72 71
144 – Mark Williams 73 71, Luke Jerling 75 69, Ruan de Smidt 77 67, Keenan Davidse 74 70, Oliver Bekker 75 69, Teboho Sefatsa 72 72, Tristen Strydom 70 74, Arno Pretorius 74 70, David McIntyre 71 73, Garth Mulroy 71 73, Martin Rohwer 75 69, Ruan Huysamen 74 70, Sean Bradley 77 67, Jade Buitendag 73 71, DK Kim 71 73
Missed the cut:
145 – MJ Viljoen 74 71, Zander Lombard 72 73, Karl Ochse 72 73, Chris Cannon 70 75, Jake Redman 73 72, Rourke van der Spuy 73 72
146 – Lindani Ndwandwe 73 73, Dayne Moore 77 69, Luke Brown 76 70, Musiwalo Nethunzwi 74 72, Jacques P de Villiers 72 74, Stephen Ferreira 71 75, Estiaan Conradie 73 73, Stefan Wears-Taylor 75 71, Louis Albertse 71 75, Cameron Moralee 75 71
147 – Marco de Beer 74 73, James Pennington 74 73, Andrew Curlewis 72 75, Hayden Griffiths 73 74, Titch Moore 70 77, Andrew Odoh 77 70, Erhard Lambrechts 71 76
148 – Herman Loubser 72 76, Callum Mowat 76 72, Jared Harvey 78 70, Chris Swanepoel 77 71, Yubin Jung 79 69, Matt Bright 69 79, Anthony Michael 73 75, Pieter Moolman 72 76, Daniel Greene 75 73, Alex Haindl 74 74
149 – Ryan Cairns 73 76, Adriel Poonan 78 71, Juran Dreyer 74 75, Andrew van der Knaap 74 75, Riekus Nortje 75 74, Keelan van Wyk 77 72
150 – Garrick Higgo 77 73, Dylan Mostert 74 76, Scott Campbell 77 73, Jacquin Hess 77 73, Paul Boshoff 75 75, Hendrikus Stoop 75 75, Christopher Van der Merwe 74 76
151 – Andre De Decker 79 72, Roberto Lupini 78 73, Aubrey Beckley 80 71, Luke Mayo 78 73, Ryan O’Neill 76 75, Wynand Dingle 78 73, Kyle McClatchie 70 81, Ryan Tipping 74 77
152 – Colin Nel 79 73, Combrinck Smit 79 73, Greg Snow 70 82, Philip Eriksson 75 77, Teaghan Gauche 78 74
153 – Ruan Korb 83 70, Wayne Stroebel 78 75, Jaco Prinsloo 76 77, Toto Thimba 77 76, Lwazi Gqira 74 79
154 – Altaaf Bux 75 79, Darin de Smidt 79 75, Deon Germishuys 80 74
155 – Divan van den Heever 80 75
156 – Thabiso Ngcobo 80 76, Joe Nawanga 80 76, Doug McGuigan 81 75
157 – Bennie van der Merwe 81 76, Peetie van der Merwe 78 79
158 – CJ du Plessis 81 77, Nicholaus Frade 78 80, Benjamin Follett-Smith 78 80
159 – Jonathan Waschefort 84 75, Caylum Boon 78 81
163 – Francois van Vuuren 82 81, Sipho Bujela 85 78
164 – Matthew Rushton 82 82
RTD – Jason Diab 72 RTD
DSQ – Eugene Marugi 79 DSQ
