Publications
Partners
Malelane - While he acknowledges playing as well as he did last year when he won the Alfred Dunhill Championship by 12 strokes is difficult to do, Charl Schwartzel was still not entirely satisfied on Friday with his second consecutive 68 at Leopard Creek in this year’s tournament.
His eight-under-par total gave him a share of the halfway lead with Dane Morten Orum Madsen, who battled round the course for his one-under-par 71, while Ross Fisher of England and another Dane, Soren Hansen, shared third on seven-under-par.
“Last year was quite a high standard,” said Schwartzel.
“But I must say the course is playing more difficult, and there were some pin positions that were really iffy.
"I thought 13 and 14 in particular.
"The pins are always around those areas, but I think time they’ve just gone a little bit too close to the limit. Two or three feet away from the slope would have still been a very difficult flag, but very fair.”
An indication of how tough some of the hole locations were came on the par-three 12th, where he putted 180 degrees away from the hole that was in front of him down the slope, let the ball catch the fringe and roll back down a ridge towards the hole – and he almost holed that for birdie!
“That was just from experience,” he said.
“I’ve seen that it is possible if you hit it almost backwards and up the hill to the fringe.
"There’s a slope right by the hole that it catches and comes back.
"A little bit of experience helps now and again.
“You could say I pushed it a bit right,” he laughed.
It was a Schwartzel who managed his way around the course without dropping a shot, and it was that which gave him the share of the lead.
“I was uncomfortable out there,” he said.
“Towards the end I hit the ball a little bit better, but in the beginning I wasn’t very comfortable with the whole thing.
“You just adapt a little bit and hit slightly different lines.
"They’re not necessarily going to give you birdies, but they also keep the bogeys off the card. If I can feel a bit more comfortable then I’ll hit more aggressive lines then I might make a few more birdies.”
Two players who made plenty of birdies were Fisher and Hansen.
Fisher went round in the morning for his seven-under-par 65, while Hansen’s identical score came in the afternoon.
Hansen, who was out for 13 months with injury, revelled in his first visit to Leopard Creek and made eight birdies and a bogey.
Behind that pair were Tyrone van Aswegen and Richard Finch on six-under, whilke young Michael Hollick found himself in a share of seventh with Romain Wattel and Victor Riu of France, Sihwan Kim of Korea, Englishman Danny Willett.
With Schwartzel’s love for the course, and his intimate knowledge of it, their task in chasing him down will be tough.
“It’s just one of those course where the targets I look at are all in the right places and also, I’ve got comfortable on these greens.”
Scores (RSA unless specified):
136 - Morten Orum Madsen (DEN) 65 71, Charl Schwartzel 68 68
137 - Ross Fisher (ENG) 72 65, Soren Hansen (DEN) 72 65
138 - Tyrone van Aswegen 70 68, Richard Finch (ENG) 68 70
139 - Michael Hollick 69 70, Romain Wattel (FRA) 70 69, Sihwan Kim (KOR) 70 69, Danny Willett (ENG) 69 70, Victor Riu (FRA) 68 71
140 - Garrick Porteous (AMA) (ENG) 71 69, Jorge Campillo (ESP) 70 70, Hennie Otto 69 71, Graeme Storm (ENG) 72 68, David Drysdale (SCO) 68 72, Ricardo Santos (POR) 66 74, Titch Moore 71 69, Niclas Fasth (SWE) 72 68
141 - Alexander Levy (FRA) 73 68, Ryan Cairns (ZIM) 70 71, Jens Dantorp (SWE) 70 71, Simon Dyson (ENG) 72 69, Haydn Porteous 72 69
142 - Jaco Ahlers 71 71, Tyrone Ferreira 72 70, Chris Doak (SCO) 69 73, Jbe' Kruger 74 68, Brendon de Jonge (ZIM) 73 69, Magnus A Carlsson (SWE) 70 72, Francois Calmels (FRA) 74 68, Jaco Van Zyl 70 72, Charl Coetzee 70 72, Simon Wakefield (ENG) 74 68
143 - Adrien Saddier (FRA) 72 71, Matthew Nixon (ENG) 72 71, John Parry (ENG) 70 73, Andrea Pavan (ITA) 72 71, JG Claassen 70 73, Garth Mulroy 76 67, Allan Versfeld 66 77, Ruan de Smidt 69 74, Yubin Jung 73 70, Andrew Curlewis 70 73, Johan Carlsson (SWE) 73 70, James Kingston 69 74, Alejandro Canizares (ESP) 74 69, Andy Sullivan (ENG) 71 72
144 - Lucas Bjerregaard (DEN) 72 72, Daniel Brooks (ENG) 70 74, Tjaart van der Walt 70 74, Oliver Fisher (ENG) 71 73, Steve Webster (ENG) 71 73, Warren Abery 73 71, Brinson Paolini (USA) 73 71, Alex Haindl 71 73, Hendrik Buhrmann 72 72, Carlos Del Moral (ESP) 73 71, Jacques Blaauw 76 68, Damien McGrane (IRL) 72 72, Justin Walters 76 68, Lee Slattery (ENG) 73 71, Robert Rock (ENG) 75 69, Gareth Maybin (NIR) 69 75, Kevin Phelan (IRL) 70 74, Mark Williams 76 68
Missed the cut:-
145 - Nacho Elvira (ESP) 75 70, Jamie McLeary (SCO) 71 74, Gregory Havret (FRA) 75 70, Jose-Filipe Lima (POR) 75 70, Thomas Aiken 71 74, Darren Fichardt 71 74, Eddie Pepperell (ENG) 74 71, Peter Whiteford(SCO) 77 68, Dean Burmester 71 74, Grant Muller 72 73, JJ Senekal 72 73, Tyrrell Hatton (ENG) 72 73
146 - Francois Coetzee 76 70, Ulrich van den Berg 74 72, Mikael Lundberg(SWE) 74 72, Trevor Fisher Jnr 73 73, Kristoffer Broberg (SWE) 71 75, Seve Benson (ENG) 73 73, Oliver Bekker 72 74, James Heath (ENG) 73 73, Neil Schietekat 74 72, Prinavin Nelson 72 74, Dion Fourie 71 75
147 - Teboho Sefatsa 75 72, Dawie Van der Walt 74 73, Wade Ormsby(AUS) 76 71, Jean Hugo 75 72, Tom Lewis (ENG) 74 73, Emiliano Grillo (ARG) 75 72, Matthew Baldwin (ENG) 72 75, Omar Sandys 72 75, PH McIntyre 72 75, MJ Daffue 76 71, Pablo Martin Benavides (ESP) 70 77, Marco Crespi (ITA) 72 75, James Morrison (ENG) 78 69, John Daly (USA) 72 75, Merrick Bremner 74 73
148 - Stuart Manley (WAL) 74 74, Christiaan Basson 70 78, Theunis Spangenberg 73 75, Scott Jamieson 77 71, Ignacio Garrido (ESP) 71 77, Peter Lawrie (IRL) 72 76, Doug McGuigan 72 76, Jake Roos 76 72, Adrian Otaegui (ESP) 73 75, Heinrich Bruiners 72 76, Shaun Norris 73 75
149 - Vaughn Groenewald 74 75, James Kamte 75 74, Colin Nel 76 73, Andreas Harto (DEN) 75 74, JP van der Walt 75 74, George Coetzee 72 77, Fabrizio Zanotti (PAR) 76 73, Simon Thornton (IRL) 79 70
150 - Keith Horne 73 77, Brandon Pieters 72 78
151 - Craig Lee (SCO) 72 79, Bryce Easton 71 80, Gary Stal (FRA) 76 75, Daan Huizing (NED) 75 76, Ockie Strydom 70 81, Juan Langeveld 73 78, Jared Harvey 82 69
152 - Thomas Pieters (BEL) 76 76, Matthew Carvell 73 79, Edoardo Molinari (ITA) 73 79
153 - Maximilian Kieffer (GER) 77 76, Desne van den Bergh 76 77, Louis de Jager 79 74
154 - Riekus Nortje 74 80, Peter Karmis 78 76, Louis Calitz 79 75
155 - Justin Harding 75 80, Francesco Laporta (ITA) 78 77, Lyle Rowe 77 78
156 - JB Hansen (DEN) 79 77
157 - Richard Sterne 80 77, Mark Murless 79 78, Danie van Tonder 83 74
158 - Andrew Georgiou 75 83, Thabang Simon 77 81
160 - Musiwalo Nethunzwi 81 79
163 - Chris Swanepoel 83 80
RTD - Michael Hoey (NIR) 76 RTD
