VERY LOW SCORING OVER SHORT COURSE AT EAST LONDON

DRYSDALE SAFE: McLEARY, DOAK MUST

KEEP COOL TO MAKE CUT IN MORNING


David Drysdale (lying joint 28th on seven-under 135 will make the cut in the Africa Open and so should Jamie McLeary and Chris Doak who will not complete their second rounds until just after 7.15am Saturday morning.
A 95min suspension of play while torrential rain fell on the second day meant that the later starters
could not finish before it got dark at East London Golf Club on South Africa's Eastern Cape.
Jack Doherty, like McLeary and Doak, has to get up early to finish his second round but unlike his two compatriots he has no chance of making the forecast cut mark of five-under-par 137.
Until they, and a handful of others, complete their rounds, there will not be an official cut mark announced.
The shortish course, only 6,616yd and a par-71 with only two par-5s, means that the cut mark will be the lowest for some time.
Drysdale is safe because he followed up his opening 65 with a 70 for seven-under-par 135.
McLeary is T38 on the overnight scoreboard after a first-round two-under 69 and  the fact that he is four under for Friday's play with three holes to play, having birdieing the third, fifth, sixth, 12th, 13th and 15th. His only bogeys - so far - have come at the seventh and ninth.
So Jamie is six under overall with three to play. He can afford to slip to five under and still make it. But two bogeys or a double bogey would ruin it all. Fingers crossed that McLeary can keep his early-morning nerve.
Doak, who had a two-under 69 on Thursday, is also now six-under-par overall and he has four holes to play early Saturday morning. Here again he can afford one bogey but no more than that.
Chris bogeyed the second in his second round but reeled off the birdies after that - the third, sixth, 11th, 12th and 13th 
Doherty, however, is a dead duck in metaphorical terms. His Thursday 76 meant he was five over the card at the start of his second round. He played a lot better today to be one-under par for the day with one hole to play. So even with a birdie or eagle finish, he is not going to make the cut.
The rest of the Scots have completed their 36 holes and are "goners" too, although some of them had sub-70 scores in the second round.
Alastair Forsyth shot three-under 139 with rounds of 71 and 68; Duncan Stewart on trhe same total after a 72 and 67. Two shots too many by both to get into the weekend action.
Craig Lee scored 69 and 71 for 140 as did South Africa-based Scot Doug McGuigan (72-68) 
Another South African Scot, Alan McLean missed out on 145 (70-75) while Peter Whiteford totalled 146 with a tremendous slump from a first-round 68 to a Friday 78. 
Lesser-known American John Hahn burned up the course with a 10-under-par second round of 61 for 126 which dislodged the long-time clubhouse leader, Ricardo Santos (Portugal). He had added a 66 to his first-day 62 for a 128.
 total.
Qualifying School graduate Hahn completed the inward half of his second round in just 28 shots to equal the course record of 61.
Hahn fired eight birdies and an eagle to finish 16 under par with a two-shot lead.
Ranked 881st in the Official World Golf Ranking, Hahn started from the ninth with a birdie and picked up further shots at the 14th and 18th before a brilliant scoring burst took him to the top of the leaderboard.
The 24 year old birdied the first and second, eagled the par five third and then birdied the fourth, sixth and eighth to effectively cover the front nine in just 28 shots, one outside The European Tour record.
A 95-minute delay caused by torrential morning rain meant the second round was not completed on schedule on Friday evening, with play due to resume at 0715 local time on Saturday.
Santos, former Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year, had picked up two shots in his first nine holes before play was suspended.
When play resumed, Santos carded further birdies at the third, fourth and seventh to boost his chances of a second European Tour title, his first coming in the Madeira Islands Open in 2012.
South African players have won nine of the last 12 European Tour events on home soil and Jean Hugo, Ulrich van den Berg and Ruan de Smidt were all a further shot back on eight under after rounds of 66, 68 and 66 respectively.

SECOND ROUND TOTALS 
(Round will not be completed until early Saturday morning following
a 95min suspension of play for torrential rain).
par 142 (2x71) Yardage 6,616yd.
126 John Hahn (USA) 65 61
128 Ricardo Santos (Portugal) 62 66
129 Oliver Fisher (England) 66 63
130 David Horsey (England) 66 64
131 Fabrizio Zanotti (Paraguay) 65 66, Lucas Bjerregaard (Denmark) 64 67, Adam Gee (England) 66 65, Emiliano Grillo (Argentina) 68 63, Thomas Aiken (South Africa) 66 65

SELECTED SCORES
135 David Drysdale (Scotland) 65 70

FORECAST CUT MARK - 137 and better
to qualify.
139 Alastair Forsyth (Scotland) 71 68, Duncan Stewart (Scotland) 72 67
140 Craig Lee (Scotland) 69 71, Doug McGuigan (Scotland) 72 68
145 Alan McLean (Scotland) 70 75
146 Peter Whiteford (Scotland) 68 78
SCOTS TO FINISH early Saturday morning
Jamie McLeary is 6 under par with three to play
Chris Doak is 6 under par with four to play.
Jack Doherty is 4 over par with one to play.