Joost Luiten and Daniel Brown both made it into the clubhouse shortly before dark at the end of a long day in the SDC Championship and secured themselves a share of the clubhouse lead at St Francis Links.
The suspended second round was completed on Saturday morning, with Norway’s Kristian Johannessen finishing as the leader on 11 under par. The field then went straight into the third round, which was unable to be completed because of fading light.
But Luiten and Brown both managed to finish their rounds with respective 67s for the clubhouse lead on nine under par, while Johannessen and Matthew Baldwin share the on-course lead on 11 under par.
Johannessen is level par for his round through 13 holes, and Baldwin is four under for his round through 13 holes.
Luiten felt he could’ve done better than his 67 on a day when his putter held him back.
“It was a good 11 holes and then the putter just went cold on the last seven holes. I gave myself a lot of chances and nothing went in so I’m a bit annoyed with that. I hit the ball lovely but it’s hard to hole putts on these greens. You’ve got to stay patient.”
But a bogey-free round helped to soothe some of those frustrations.
“No bogeys on the scorecard is good. It was a good day overall. You know, five under on the Saturday is always a good score. But I think it could’ve been a couple better. I just need to see if I can drop some putts in the final round and put some pressure on the leaders.”
Brown was very pleased with his 67.
“It was really solid. I didn’t do a lot wrong and it was just really steady. I still had 11 holes to go this morning and then I just kept feeling confident. It’s been pretty tough this week with the stop-start rounds. But it’s going to be nice to have the buzz of having a chance in the final round.”
By Michael Vlismas
