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After making two bogeys in his first round, he didn’t drop a shot in his second as he joined Doug McGuigan at eight-under-par, and they had a one-stroke edge over American rookie Kyle Pilgrim, who carded a one-under 71 in his second round.
“Bogey-free is always nice,” said Carvell.
“I made a couple of good 10 to 12-footers to avoid drops. I really kept it in play nicely off the tee and gave myself chances to go at a few off the flags.”
It was a carefully cultivated approach to a tough course that got him around without a drop.
“I think the course is very fair,” he said. You’ve got to hit it well off the tee, but the fairways are fairly wide. You don’t have to hit driver. I think I’ve hit two drivers in two days. If you hit three-wood, it gets a bit of run out there, and it’s a better club in the wind.
“You can play it aggressively, sometimes to your detriment, but if you keep the ball in play, and finish the round with the ball you started with, I think you’re going to be in with a shout.”
One hole which caused problems throughout the first two rounds - Wynand Dingle made a frightful 12 on it - was the par-five 14th. Carvell cruised through it.
“I birdied the 14th two days in a row,” he said.
“I’m hitting four-iron off the tee and then hybrid for my second. There’s a bit of run down the fairway so you’re hitting four-iron a lot further than you usually would. But even the second shot is quite daunting. You’ve got to make sure you miss it in the right place, if you miss it. If you lay up there, it’s still not an easy third. So I thought as long as I was covering the hazard, it’s fine. And those were two good birdies.”
Behind the third-placed Pilgrim lurked Jacques Kruyswijk and Brandon Stone. Kruyswijk signed for a two-under 70 to leave himself on six-under, two off the lead, while Stone birdied 16 and 17 and eagled the 18th to jump to five-under for the tournament after his second-round 68.
So Carvell is going to have the hounds snapping at his heels as he starts the final round, but he’s comfortable with that.
“I haven’t been around the top of the leaderboard for a while,” he said.
“I’m just going to stay calm as I can tomorrow and enjoy it. There are no expectations really. I know my game is there, and I’m looking to make contending more of a regular occurrence in the future.”
Scores:
136 - Matthew Carvell 69 67, Doug McGuigan 68 68
137 - Kyle Pilgrim 66 71
138 - Jacques Kruyswijk 68 70
139 - Brandon Stone 71 68, Wallie Coetsee 66 73
141 - Zack Byrd 71 70, Christiaan Basson 69 72
142 - Stephen Ferreira 70 72
143 - Charl Coetzee 71 72, Chris Cannon 71 72, Desne Van Den Bergh 73 70, Justin Harding 70 73, Michael Hollick 71 72, Aubrey Beckley 69 74, Ulrich van den Berg 69 74, Tyrone Ryan 71 72
144 - Andrew van der Knaap 69 75, Chris Swanepoel 74 70, Ockie Strydom 72 72, Herman Loubser 76 68
145 - Riekus Nortje 72 73, Tyrone Ferreira 75 70, Jared Harvey 73 72, Breyten Meyer 77 68
146 - Musiwalo Nethunzwi 71 75, Ruan de Smidt 72 74, Jaco Prinsloo 70 76, Andre Nel 72 74, JC Ritchie 73 73, JJ Senekal 72 74, Stuart Smith 76 70, Titch Moore 74 72, Vaughn Groenewald 71 75, Quintin Wilsnach 73 73
147 - Rourke van der Spuy 74 73, Anthony Michael 73 74, Ryan Tipping 75 72, Gert Myburgh 74 73, Danie Van Niekerk 72 75, Matias Calderon 73 74, PH McIntyre 73 74, Jean Hugo 74 73, Louis de Jager 70 77
Missed the cut:
148 - Antonio Rosado 71 77, Irvin Mazibuko 72 76, Madalitso Muthiya 73 75, Jason Diab 72 76, Jake Redman 76 72, Teagan Moore 76 72, Jean-Paul Strydom 76 72
149 - Sipho Bujela 72 77, Matthew Spacey 76 73, Rhys West 76 73, Dwayne Basson 74 75, Neil Schietekat 74 75, Stefan Engell Andersen 75 74, Andrew Curlewis 74 75, Combrinck Smit 74 75, N.J. Arnoldi 74 75
150 - Jacquin Hess 75 75, Scott Campbell 75 75, Coert Groenewald 77 73, Heinrich Bruiners 74 76, Makhetha Mazibuko 73 77
151 - Lyle Rowe 75 76, Jason Froneman 69 82, Gerrit Foster 77 74
152 - Luke Jerling 76 76, Steven Ferreira 72 80, Daniel van Tonder 75 77, Callum Mowat 75 77
153 - Francois Coetzee 74 79, Michael Palmer 78 75, Toto Thimba 77 76, Greg Bentley 75 78, Allan Versfeld 72 81, Antonio Costa 72 81
154 - Theunis Spangenberg 74 80, Colin Nel 75 79
155 - Jason Viljoen 79 76, Dayne Moore 84 71, Altaaf Bux 76 79, Daniel Hammond 78 77, Teaghan Gauche 74 81
156 - Sean Bradley 79 77
157 - Thanda Mavundla 77 80
158 - Cody Martin 76 82
159 - Paul Marks 77 82, Merrick Bremner 76 83
160 - Wynand Dingle 72 88, MJ Viljoen 77 83
161 - Drikus van der Walt 80 81
164 - Mark Williams 82 82
165 - Ian Geringer 82 83
168 - Jaco Mouton 85 83
