South Africa’s Omar Sandys, a player little known on the international golf stage, carded a four-under-par 68 on Friday to open up a two-shot lead in the €1-million Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek Country Club.
The 30-year-old from the Free State, who comes from a poverty-stricken background, was on eight-under-par 136 at the halfway mark in this tournament after his five-birdie return on Friday, which included just one bogey when he three-putted the 16th green.
England’s Lee Slattery was lying second on 138 following a day’s best, bogey-free, 65 with tournament favourite and world number five Ernie Els of South Africa in joint third place on 139 alongside compatriot Titch Moore, Scotland’s Craig Lee, John Bickerton from England and Wales’s Sion Bebb, the overnight leader.
”I stuck to my routine. This is a golf course where, because of all the trouble off the fairways, you need to be disciplined in your shotmaking and your course management and I was today,” said Sandys.
Slattery lost his European Tour card in 2007 and is only here because he went back to the qualifying school finals and finished second to regain his playing privileges.
Bebb, the overnight leader on 67, was seven under for the tournament with three holes to go on Friday, but dropped shots at the 16th and 17th to lose momentum.
Els is probably the man to watch on Saturday and Sunday. He hit the ball exceptionally well on Friday in spite of four bogeys, one of which came at the par-five 18th where his eight-iron approach just failed to clear the water that fronts the green.
France’s Michael Lorenzo-Vera (22), who is on the European Tour as a fully exempt player for the first time after topping the 2007 Challenge Tour, continued to make progress following a two-under-par 70 on Friday.
Starting at the 10th hole, he was one under par for each of the nine-hole loops. He had five birdies in his last 10 holes, but he also double-bogeyed number one and bogeyed the eighth. He was lying in joint 15th place. — Sapa-AFP