Friday, March 03, 2017


Scott Jamieson shares South Africa lead but


Duncan Stewart drops to T18




EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS
Glasgow's Scott Jamieson and Alexander Bjork from Sweden share the halfway lead, a shot clear of England's James Morrison and two ahead of the home South African trio of Thomas Aiken, Peter KIarmis and Justin Walters in the Tshwane Open at Pretoria Country Club.
Björk will not be changing his game-plan.
The Swede fired a 67 today  to go with his opening 65 and sits at ten under par alongside Jamieson.
This is new territory for the 26 year old Bjork who is playing just his ninth event on the European Tour, although he does have a victory on the Challenge Tour at Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge last season.
With a top ten and just one missed cut in six outings this term, he has made an assured start as a rookie, and insists he will not be doing anything differently in the final group.
s
"I will try to play as I did these first two days," he said. "Have the same strategy, practise a little bit on the irons and the putts now this afternoon but trying to go out and play well tomorrow also.
"I'm happy! I played well today. I had some troubles on some holes with the distance on the irons but overall, it was a good round."
Björk birdied the second for the second day in a row and while he dropped a shot on the fourth, further birdies were to follow on the sixth, tenth and 11th.
A brilliant right-to-lefter from off the green on the 12th then made him the first man into double figures and after dropping back with a bogey on the 16th, a smart up-and-down on the last moved him back to ten under.
Jamieson has spent the last two seasons battling for his card, finishing 106th and 107th in the Race to Dubai Rankings presented by Rolex, but has a good record in South Africa, claiming his only European Tour win at the Nelson Mandela Championship presented by ISPS Handa in 2013.
He followed an opening 67 with a 65 containing just a single bogey and was happy with his day's work.
"Very solid again from tee to green like yesterday," said the Scot. "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."
Jamieson made birdies on the fifth, sixth, eighth and ninth to turn in 31 before dropping a shot on the 11th. Bounce-back birdies on the 12th and 14th followed and when he put his approach to the 17th to four feet, he was tied for top spot.
Morrison had to recover from an early bogey for the second round in a row but after dropping a shot at the second made gains on the seventh, ninth, 11th, 12th, 17th and last.
Aiken started on the back nine and turned in 31 with birdies on the tenth, 12th, 13th, 15th and 18th. He then chipped in at the first, holed from the fringe at the second and hit a stunning approach to the third to make it four birdies in a row.



When he holed from six feet on the sixth, the whiff of a 59 was in the air, but a three-putt bogey on the next put paid to those hopes before he birdied the eighth for a 62, 10 shots better than his first round.
Karmis fired a second consecutive 67 courtesy of a brilliant finish to his round. After gains on the third, fifth and sixth, he bogeyed the ninth and 14th before finishing birdie-birdie-birdie.
Walters was level par for his round stood on the 17th tee after four birdies and four bogeys but a birdie-eagle finish catapulted him up the leaderboard.
Another South African, Garth Mulroy, was then at seven under alongside Frenchman Grégory Havret and Finn Mikko Korhonen.
Spaniard Jorge Campillo and South African Dean Burmester were at six under, a shot clear of Jacques Blaauw, Jamie Donaldson, Soomin Lee, Haydn Porteous, Jordan Smith and Steve Webster.
Duncan Stewart from Grantown on Spey, who had opened with a 66, slipped back with a 72 for a share of 18th place on 138 with compatriots Richie Ramsay (68-70) and Marc Warren (68-70).
David Drysale had a 68 for 140 and a share of 40th place.
The cut fell at 142 and better.
Odd Scot out was Scott Henry with 67 and 76 for 143, one shot too many to figure in the weekend action.


SECOND-ROUND LEADERBOARD
par 142 (2x71)
132 S Jamieson (Sco) 67 65, A Bjork (Swe) 65 67.
l33 J Morrison (Eng) 67 66
134 J Walters (SAf) 66 68, T Aiken (SAf) 72 62, P Karmis (SAf) 67 67.


OTHER SCOTS' SCORES
138 M Warren 68 70, R Ramsay 68 70, D Stewart 66 72 (T18)
140 D Drysdale 72 68 (T40)


MISSED THE CUT (142 and better qualified)
143 S Henry 67 76






TO VIEW ALL THE SCORES


CLICK HERE

Labels:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

Copyright © Colin Farquharson

If you can't find what you are looking for.... please check the Archive List or search this site with Google