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Pretoria - A short sharp thunderstorm disrupted round two of the Tshwane Open on Friday, but not before Scott Jamieson of Scotland and Alexander Bjork of Sweden had moved into the lead at Pretoria Country Club on a halfway score of 10-under-par.
That gave them a one-stroke edge over James Morrison of England, who had his round interrupted for just short of an hour. The South African trio of Peter Karmis, Thomas Aiken and Justin Walters were in a share of fourth at eight-under-par.
Jamieson, the 2012 Nelson Mandela Championship winner, just squeaked his round of six-under-par 65 in ahead of the storm, and he was pleased with his game.
“I was very solid again from tee to green like yesterday,” he said.
“I’m delighted with that. I struggled a bit last week from tee to green but it seems to have clicked this week. Hopefully I can hole a few more putts this weekend.
“I think I hit about 16 greens yesterday and it was probably something similar today so if I can keep that up and be on 16 greens and make a couple of putts out there, I can keep it going.”
Bjork, who is in his rookie season on the European Tour after a very good year in 2016 on the Challenge Tour, maintained a challenge with a four-under-par 67 which included two bogeys.
“I played well today,” he said.
“I had some troubles on some holes with the distance on the irons but overall, it was a good round.
“The trouble was with the altitude because we are playing really high. Last week it was even higher but it was cold so I don’t really know how long the ball flies this week. It’s tough to really trust it sometimes but I was hitting a lot of good irons and some of them ended up short and some were a little bit long. But it was tough and hopefully it’s better tomorrow.”
The round of the day belonged to Aiken, who seemed on his was to what would have been a remarkable 59 after his opening round of one-over-par 72. In the end, a bogey on the seventh - his 16th - and a par-save on the ninth after a visit into the water stymied his efforts.
But he was thrilled with his nine-under-par 62.
“It was there,” he said.
“You don’t get too many opportunities in your career to shoot one. You get close now and then. I did my best to try and make a few birdies when I had the opportunity coming in, and it just didn’t happen. It just shows that when you force issues - it just doesn’t happen. But one has to give it a try.”
Aiken teed off the 10th and went out in 31 with five birdies and four pars. He then made three straight birdies to start his second nine and added another on the par-four sixth hole.
There was a group of three players on seven-under-par, three shots off the lead, consisting of South African Garth Mulroy, France’s Gregory Havret and Finn Mikko Korhonen.
Scores:
132 - Alexander Bjork 65 67, Scott Jamieson 67 65
133 - James Morrison 67 66
134 - Peter Karmis 67 67, Thomas Aiken 72 62, Justin Walters 66 68
135 - Garth Mulroy 67 68, Gregory Havret 65 70, Mikko Korhonen 66 69
136 - Jorge Campillo 67 69, Dean Burmester 68 68
137 - Jamie Donaldson 70 67, Soomin Lee 68 69, Jordan Smith 69 68, Steve Webster 70 67, Haydn Porteous 65 72, Jacques Blaauw 69 68
138 - Hennie Otto 68 70, Graeme Storm 68 70, Jacques Kruyswijk 69 69, Chris Paisley 70 68, Duncan Stewart 66 72, Richie Ramsay 68 70, Matthew Southgate 67 71, Marc Warren 68 70, Ross McGowan 69 69, Lee Slattery 71 67
139 - Maximilian Kieffer 73 66, Louis de Jager 68 71, Peter Uihlein 69 70, Christiaan Bezuidenhout 72 67, Darren Fichardt 69 70, Zander Lombard 69 70, Wallie Coetsee 71 68, Adilson Da Silva 69 70, David Horsey 70 69, Dawie Van der Walt 72 67, Chris Hanson 68 71, Ben Eccles 66 73
140 - Hennie du Plessis 70 70, Marcus Armitage 68 72, Anthony Michael 75 65, Titch Moore 71 69, Ricardo Gonzalez 71 69, Alexander Knappe 72 68, Trevor Fisher Jnr 71 69, David Drysdale 72 68, Jose-Filipe Lima 71 69
141 - Francesco Laporta 70 71, Justin Hicks 68 73, Lucas Bjerregaard 71 70, Trevor Immelman 71 70, Pelle Edberg 71 70, Paul Dunne 73 68, Thomas Detry 71 70, Ricardo Gouveia 69 72, Simon Dyson 68 73, Daniel Im 74 67, Matthieu Pavon 71 70, Oliver Fisher 71 70, Robert Rock 69 72, Jaco Ahlers 71 70
142 - Renato Paratore 73 69, Edoardo Molinari 69 73, Ruan de Smidt 70 72, Vaughn Groenewald 70 72, Damien Perrier 69 73, Paul Peterson 70 72, Keenan Davidse 68 74, Jaco Prinsloo 69 73, Lyle Rowe 70 72, Bernd Ritthammer 72 70, Jean Hugo 72 70, Dylan Frittelli 71 71, Sam Walker 71 71, Anthony Wall 70 72, Romain Langasque 68 74, Daniel Brooks 68 74, Pep Angles 68 74, Chris Swanepoel 70 72, Colin Nel 71 71
Missed the cut:
143 - Scott Henry 67 76, Oliver Bekker 68 75, Ryan Fox 69 74, Magnus A Carlsson 73 70, David Howell 71 72, Nacho Elvira 70 73, Andrew Curlewis 71 72, Jeff Winther 72 71, Niclas Fasth 76 67, Toto Thimba 70 73, James Kingston 76 67, Jaco Van Zyl 74 69, Stuart Manley 70 73
144 - Adrian Otaegui 70 74, Keith Horne 71 73, Nino Bertasio 72 72, Jbe' Kruger 72 72, Robert Dinwiddie 71 73, Steven Tiley 74 70, Haotong Li 73 71, George Coetzee 68 76, Jens Fahrbring 73 71, Morten Orum Madsen 72 72, Paul Waring 71 73, Tjaart van der Walt 74 70, Michael Hollick 71 73
145 - JC Ritchie 72 73, Ulrich van den Berg 71 74, Nathan Kimsey 73 72, Tyrone Ferreira 74 71, Ashun Wu 75 70, Toby Tree 66 79
146 - Christofer Blomstrand 70 76, Jeev Milkha Singh 75 71, Jean-Paul Strydom 76 70, Rikard Karlberg 76 70, Joel Stalter 74 72, Laurie Canter 73 73, Felipe Aguilar 73 73, Sebastien Gros 71 75, Danie van Tonder 74 72, Erik van Rooyen 73 73, Neil Schietekat 76 70
147 - Madalitso Muthiya 75 72, Mark Foster 74 73, Johan Carlsson 74 73, Rhys West 72 75, Jeff Inglis 69 78
148 - Trevor Mahoney 71 77, Mark Williams 77 71, Daniel Greene 72 76, Joakim Lagergren 80 68, Bryce Easton 76 72
149 - Makhetha Mazibuko 77 72, Ockie Strydom 70 79, James Kamte 74 75
150 - Eduardo de la Riva 73 77, Doug McGuigan 75 75, James du Preez 78 72, Merrick Bremner 75 75, Steve Surry 76 74
151 - Darren Clarke 74 77, Alex Haindl 74 77, Marc Cayeux 76 75
152 - Marcel Siem 78 74, Christiaan Basson 77 75, Jacquin Hess 76 76
153 - Omar Sandys 76 77
156 - Petr Dedek 79 77
158 - CJ du Plessis 80 78
159 - Mikhail Tewary 78 81, Stuart Smith 80 79
WDN - Gary Stal 80 WDN
RTD - Dwayne Basson RTD
DSQ - Jonathan Agren 71 DSQ
