Rohwer pulls clear at Royal Swazi Open

Cape Town – Martin Rohwer signed for an eventful four-under-par 68 second-round of the  Royal Swazi Open, earning himself 12 points which took his overall tally for the week to 30 and retained his spot at the top in eSwatini.

Unlike the usual stroke-play format, at this event points are awarded based on the number of strokes taken at each hole, making it possible for players to play attacking golf.

Having entered the round as an overnight co-leader with England’s James Allan and teeing off from the 10^th, Rohwer started the second round solidly, making two birdies, a par and a bogey in his first four holes while collecting five points there. He picked up another two-pointer on the 15^th, his sixth hole, but that was quickly halved by the bogey he made in the next hole.

Turning, he went par, bogey, birdie and bogey, a run he would not have accepted had this event not been played in the Modified Stableford format. “As I said earlier, a bogey only counts for one point so you can actually make a bogey and it doesn’t hurt your score as it would in the stroke-play event,” Rohwer noted.

After those four holes, however, Rohwer found his rhythm again and went on an uninterrupted four-birdie run before picking up a par on the par-three 18^th hole.

“Two different rounds of golf,” he said, alluding to his opening round and today’s, “because yesterday’s round was quite solid. Today I made a few bogeys but obviously, I managed to make a few birdies as well. Anytime you make 30 points in the first two rounds you’ve got to be happy.”

With his point haul of 20 on day two, Jake Roos made the biggest leap and on a total of 28 points currently, he moves to a share of the second spot with Allan who earned 10 points to add to his opening-round 18 points.

MJ Viljoen is fourth on the leaderboard with 27 points after picking up 10 in round two while Jaco Prinsloo and Daniel Greene share the fifth spot with 26 points apiece. Estiaan Conradie’s 14 points, put together with his opening-round 11, ensured he maintained his spot in that top 10 leading players. Sharing the eighth spot is Neil Schietekat and Stephen Ferreira (24 points) while England’s Steve Surry earned nine points to total 23 and make up the balance of the leading 10 players in eSwatini.

Scores:

30 - Martin Rohwer 18 12
28 - Jake Roos 8 20, James Allan 18 10
27 - MJ Viljoen 17 10
26 - Jaco Prinsloo 9 17, Daniel Greene 15 11
25 - Estiaan Conradie 11 14
24 - Stephen Ferreira 15 9, Neil Schietekat 12 12, Titch Moore 10 14
23 - Steve Surry 14 9
22 - Keenan Davidse 11 11, Thriston Lawrence 13 9
21 - David McIntyre 15 6, Christiaan Basson 9 12, Ruan Conradie 13 8
20 - Jean Hugo 9 11
19 - Teaghan Gauche 7 12, Louis Albertse 4 15, Michael Palmer 12 7, Fredrik From 11 8, Duane Keun 3 16, Jacques P de Villiers 14 5, James Kingston 9 10
18 - CJ du Plessis 14 4, Bradford Vaughan 10 8, Breyten Meyer 13 5, Merrick Bremner 11 7, Andre Nel 9 9, Musiwalo Nethunzwi 7 11
17 - JC Ritchie 6 11, Trevor Fisher Jnr 9 8, Jake Redman 9 8, Pieter Moolman 10 7, Vaughn Groenewald 7 10
16 - Ryan Cairns 12 4, Jacques Blaauw 7 9
15 - Derick Petersen 5 10, Rhys West 10 5, Anthony Michael 11 4, Toto Thimba 7 8, Ockie Strydom 9 6
14 - Andrew McLardy 7 7, Luke Jerling 12 2, Wallie Coetsee 7 7
13 - Garrick Higgo 5 8, Kyle Barker 7 6, Sean Bradley 6 7
12 - Hennie Otto 6 6, Jonathan Agren 7 5

Missed the cut:

11 - Lyle Rowe 1 10
10 - Chris Swanepoel 4 6, Callum Mowat 6 4, Andrew van der Knaap 3 7, James Pennington 5 5, Riekus Nortje 4 6, Madalitso Muthiya 8 2
9 - Roberto Lupini 6 3, JJ Senekal 5 4, Rourke van der Spuy 7 2
8 - Clinton Grobler 6 2, Wynand Dingle 1 7, Doug McGuigan 3 5
7 - Chris Cannon 2 5, Jaco Ahlers 1 6
6 - Tyrone Ryan 10 -4
5 - Benjamin Follett-Smith 3 2, Dylan Naidoo 2 3
4 - PH McIntyre 5 -1, Michael Saunders 3 1
-3 - Nic Henning -1 -2
-5 - Adriel Poonan -8 3