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Schwartzel’s round lights up Tshwane Open

Tshwane - While Anthony Michael held a two-stroke edge on Friday as darkness halted play before the second round of the Tshwane Open could be completed, all the attention was focused elsewhere.

According to sunshinetour.com, Charl Schwartzel found something of the game that brought him the 2011 Masters as he cruised around the course which hadn’t surrendered more than four shots to anyone else all day in six-under-par 64 to place himself handily to make a charge over the weekend.

“I’m very pleased with the way I hit the ball today,” said Schwartzel. “It was a massive improvement over a few months ago. I hit it beautifully today. I had so many chances. The course was playing tough, and you really needed to keep the ball in the narrow spaces between the trees.

“With all the dog-legs on this course, you can hit yourself in to trouble very quickly, but I played really very well today. I hit some beautiful approach shots and gave myself a lot of chances.”

And on a day on which no-one else was able to sign for a bogey-free round, Schwartzel picked up four birdies and an eagle-three on the 12th to keep his card blemish-free.

But he felt he could have gone even lower but for his putting. “I didn’t putt very well today,” he said. “I was chatting with Brett (Rumford) about some of the new technology out there, but these greens are difficult to read. I didn’t hit a lot of bad putts but it’s frustrating when you miss six-footers and still shoot 64.”

Michael backed-up his opening round of six-under 64 with a one-under 69 on day two. Speaking about the conditions Michael said, “It was quite tricky out there today with the breeze and the greens were a little bit firmer than yesterday.”

Such was the excellence of Schwartzel’s round that it was two better than the next best of the day. Three players carded four-under – Haydn Porteous, England’s Seve Benson and Denmark’s Jeff Winther. Porteous found himself in a share of third, one stroke behind Schwartzel, together with Daniel Im of the United States and Theunis Spangenberg.

Im was happy with his pair of 68s for the tournament. He said, “It just takes a lot of patience out here. You know for some reason on the scorecard, it’s quite short but it plays a little bit longer, a bit tricky you know, so I’m really pleased with 68.”

Spangenberg said: “It was a bit of a battle. It wasn’t under-par golf for me. I had to make a few good saves for par, some up and downs in the first nine. The greens are firming up in the afternoon and the flags were tucked away and they’re difficult to get to today.”

Scores:

-7 - Anthony Michael (RSA) 64 69

-5 - Charl Schwartzel (RSA) 71 64

-4 - Daniel Im (USA) 68 68, Theunis Spangenberg (RSA) 65 71, Haydn Porteous (RSA) 70 66

-3 - Dylan Frittelli (RSA) 68 69

-2 - Steven Jeppesen (SWE) 70 68, Dean Burmester (RSA) 70 68, Richard Sterne (RSA) 68 70, Shaun Norris (RSA) 68 70,Jaco Van Zyl (RSA) 66 72, Justin Harding (RSA) 63 75, Jamie McLeary (SCO) 68 70

-1 - Seve Benson (ENG) 73 66, Justin Walters (RSA) 71 68, Zander Lombard (RSA) 72 67, Nino Bertasio (ITA) 68 71,Bobby Wyatt (USA) 71 68, Jeff Winther (DEN) 73 66, Doug McGuigan (SCO) 69 70, Chris Paisley (ENG) 70 69

Par - Darren Fichardt (RSA) 72 68, Jean Hugo (RSA) 71 69, David Law (SCO) 70 70, Gary Boyd (ENG) 71 69,George Coetzee (RSA) 68 72, Stuart Manley (WAL) 72 68

+1 - Marco Crespi (ITA) 71 70, Tyrone Ferreira (RSA) 74 67, Chris Hanson (ENG) 71 70, Toby Tree (ENG) 70 71,Rourke van der Spuy (RSA) 72 69, James Robinson (ENG) 71 70, Brandon Stone (RSA) 71 70, Merrick Bremner (RSA) 67 74,Andrew Curlewis (RSA) 71 70, Michael Jonzon (SWE) 70 71, Mark Williams (ZIM) 73 (-2) [17]

+2 - Bernd Ritthammer (GER) 71 71, Mikael Lundberg (SWE) 75 67, Jean-Paul Strydom (RSA) 69 73, Fabrizio Zanotti (PAR) 70 72,Hennie Otto (RSA) 71 71, Daniel Gavins (ENG) 71 71, Gary King (ENG) 70 72, Andrew McArthur (SCO) 68 74,Ben Evans (ENG) 70 72, Robert Dinwiddie (ENG) 68 74, Brett Rumford (AUS) 75 67, Scott Henry (SCO) 68 74,David Horsey (ENG) 71 71, Garth Mulroy (RSA) 71 71, Matthew Nixon (ENG) 71 71, Jason Scrivener (AUS) 69 73,Divan van den Heever (RSA) 71 71, Sebastian Soderberg (SWE) 72 70

+3 - Lindani Ndwandwe (RSA) 73 70, Tom Murray (ENG) 73 70, Jack Senior (ENG) 69 74, Louis de Jager (RSA) 74 69,Toto Thimba (Jnr) 74 69, Jason Diab (RSA) 76 67, Jose-Filipe Lima (POR) 71 72, Dimi Papadatos (AUS) 72 71,Lukas Nemecz (AUT) 74 69, Max Orrin (ENG) 74 69, Jason Knutzon (USA) 69 74, Christiaan Basson (RSA) 73 70,Michael Hollick (RSA) 72 71, JC Ritchie (RSA) 71 72, Jacques Blaauw (RSA) 72 (+1) [17], Daan Huizing (NED) 69 (+4) [17]

Missing projected cut:-

+4 - Matthew Southgate (ENG) 73 71, Borja Virto Astudillo (ESP) 74 70, Callum Mowat (RSA) 72 72, Oliver Fisher (ENG) 74 70,Jens Dantorp (SWE) 71 73, Felipe Aguilar (CHL) 72 72, Tjaart van der Walt (RSA) 70 74, Kevin Phelan (IRL) 73 71,Ben Eccles (AUS) 74 70, Jack Harrison (ENG) 70 74, Peter Karmis (RSA) 72 72

+5 - Jacques Kruyswijk (RSA) 73 72, Kevin Stone (RSA) 75 70, Lincoln Tighe (AUS) 73 72, Wallie Coetsee (RSA) 73 72,Espen Kofstad (NOR) 72 73, Bryandrew Roelofsz (RSA) 72 73, Adilson Da Silva (BRA) 73 72, Bradley Neil (SCO) 71 74,Madalitso Muthiya (ZAM) 73 72, Jaco Ahlers (RSA) 71 74, Titch Moore (RSA) 73 72, Pablo Martin Benavides (ESP) 71 74,Jens Fahrbring (SWE) 76 69

+6 - Ockie Strydom (RSA) 73 73, Ruan de Smidt (RSA) 76 70, Michiel Bothma (RSA) 71 75, Chris Swanepoel (RSA) 74 72,Oliver Bekker (RSA) 75 71, David Drysdale (SCO) 75 71, Alex Haindl (RSA) 75 71, Mark Murless (RSA) 70 76,Ryan Evans (ENG) 73 73, Ulrich van den Berg (RSA) 68 78, Thomas Linard (FRA) 76 70, Colin Nel (RSA) 75 71

+7 - Clement Sordet (FRA) 78 69, Vaughn Groenewald (RSA) 72 75, Jbe' Kruger (RSA) 77 70, Jared Harvey (RSA) 72 75,Sam Walker (ENG) 73 74, Ross McGowan (ENG) 74 73, Heinrich Bruiners (RSA) 74 73, Stephen Ferreira (POR) 75 72,Edoardo Molinari (ITA) 75 72, Matt Ford (ENG) 70 77, Laurie Canter (ENG) 74 73, PH McIntyre (RSA) 76 71,Russel Franz (RSA) 70 (+7) [17]

+8 - Teboho Sefatsa (RSA) 77 71, Mark Foster (ENG) 73 75, Jake Roos (RSA) 74 74, Tyrone Mordt (RSA) 73 75,Hugues Joannes (BEL) 72 76, Daniel Gaunt (AUS) 73 75, Tom Lewis (ENG) 71 77, Neil Schietekat (RSA) 74 74,Rhys Davies (WAL) 74 74, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (RSA) 74 74

+9 - Nicolo Ravano (ITA ) 76 73, Lasse Jensen(DEN) 73 76, Andrew Georgiou (CYP) 76 73, Richard McEvoy (ENG) 74 75,Adrian Otaegui (ESP) 74 75, Keith Horne (RSA) 75 74

+10 - Dwayne Basson (RSA) 74 76, CJ du Plessis (RSA) 79 71, Lyle Rowe (RSA) 75 75

+11 - Trevor Fisher Jnr (RSA) 74 77, Derick Petersen (RSA) 76 75, Clement Berardo (FRA) 73 78, Marcus Kinhult (SWE) 74 77

+12 - Peter Lawrie (IRL) 76 76, Leorin Pillay (RSA) 77 75

+13 - Danie van Tonder (RSA) 78 75, Rhys West (RSA) 76 77, Francesco Laporta (ITA) 71 82, Matthew Baldwin (ENG) 72 81,David Dixon (ENG) 78 (+5) [17]

+14 - Omar Sandys (RSA) 76 78, Ryan Tipping (RSA) 80 (+4) [17]

+16 - John Hahn (USA) 79 77

WD - Ruaidhri McGee (IRL) 76 WD

RTD - James Busby (ENG) RTD

 

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