Louis Oosthuizen heads into the weekend of the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open only three shots off the lead and still looking for the really low round he believes has eluded him up until now on the Heritage Golf Club course.
The 2010 Open champion signed for a 68 on Friday, lifting him to seven under par and chasing the 10-under-par lead of India’s Arjun Atwal. The 44-year-old Atwal followed up his course record 62 in the first round with a 70.
Atwal leads by a single stroke over South Africans Dylan Frittelli and Louis de Jager and England’s Laurie Canter.
But it’s Oosthuizen they’ll all be keeping an eye on as the world number 22 has managed to keep himself well in contention despite not yet feeling settled on the greens.
“I’m happy to be three behind with the way I’ve been playing. There’s a lot of golf left on the weekend. There are definitely low numbers out there if you can roll the ball well. Today I just seemed to not be able to see the lines as well. I had a lot of opportunities and didn’t make any,” he said.
But he remains as relaxed as ever about his chances of a win on debut in this tri-sanctioned tournament between the Sunshine, European and Asian Tours.“I’m having a great time with the family. Everyone is here. We’ll go to the pool now, relax a bit, and tomorrow off we go again,” he said after his round.
Atwal also didn’t get as much out of his putting as he wanted on day two.
“I thought it was a lot more tricky today. The wind wasn’t blowing at a consistent pace and it would gust. The putter was definitely not as hot as the first day. I was hitting the ball just as good but it’s tough to follow up a 62 with another low round.”
As tough as he found it, Atwal showed the experience of a golfer who beat Major winner David Toms to his only PGA Tour victory in the 2010 Wyndham Championship when he said, “I’m always calm. People who know me know that I don’t get fired up or lose my temper. I’m pretty much the same all the time. I’ll take this one-under, and I’m really looking forward to the weekend.”
Frittelli is just as eager to see the weekend arrive. The young star is enjoying an incredible run of form in which he claimed a maiden victory on the European Tour this year and has finished second, fourth and 16th in three of his last four tournaments. On Friday he surged into contention with a 66 that ended with him making two birdies and an eagle two in his final four holes.
The eagle came on the par-four ninth where Frittelli reached the green with his three-wood tee shot and left himself a 30cm putt for eagle.
“I just decided to give it a go and I hit a pearler,” he said. “I’m very happy with the score. I’m feeling confident. I mean, if I was within five shots of the leader I would still feel confident. There’s still a lot of golf left so I’m happy to be out there and competing. You know, this is week five in a row for me. I’m definitely on form now. I’ve played a lot of tournament golf in the last five weeks and it’s showing in my performance.”
Further down the leaderboard, Thailand’s Suttijet Kooratanapisan equaled Atwal’s course record with his own 62 on Friday, which saw him reach the halfway stage of the tournament at four under par.
Scores from the second round of the €1 million AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, played at the par-71 Heritage Golf Club on Friday:
132 – Arjun Atwal 62 70
133 – Dylan Frittelli 67 66, Laurie Canter 67 66, Louis de Jager 66 67
134 – Miguel Tabuena 66 68, Jose-Filipe Lima 68 66, Ockie Strydom 66 68, Justin Walters 68 66, Oliver Bekker 67 67
135 – Mark Williams 69 66, Joel Stalter 67 68, Louis Oosthuizen 67 68
136 – Anders Hansen 67 69, Ricardo Gouveia 68 68, Darren Fichardt 70 66, S S P Chawrasia 69 67, Romain Langasque 67 69
137 – Andrea Pavan 68 69, Jaco Prinsloo 69 68, Jarin Todd 68 69, Matthieu Pavon 69 68, Adilson Da Silva 66 71, Pep Angles 68 69, Jinho Choi 71 66
138 – Shiv Kapur 69 69, George Coetzee 67 71, Sutijet Kooratanapisan 76 62, Masahiro Kawamura 68 70, Marcel Schneider 72 66
139 – Marcus Kinhult 67 72, Jeff Winther 71 68, Clement Sordet 70 69, Sebastian Heisele 66 73, Paul Peterson 70 69, Phachara Khongwatmai 71 68, Jbe’ Kruger 67 72, Tyrone Ryan 71 68
140 – Scott Vincent 70 70, Nico Geyger 71 69, Shubankar Sharma 68 72, Jason Knutzon 67 73, Haydn Porteous 69 71, Neil Schietekat 70 70, Ashun Wu 72 68, Casey O’Toole 68 72, Jens Dantorp 70 70, Peter Karmis 73 67, Jack Harrison 71 69, Sam Horsfield 68 72, Jacques Kruyswijk 68 72, Suradit Yongcharoenchai 69 71, Jean-Paul Strydom 71 69, Doug McGuigan 69 71
141 – Christiaan Basson 72 69, Gaganjeet Bhullar 70 71, Pedro Oriol 71 70, Dean Burmester 71 70, Richard Mcevoy 68 73, Steven Brown 73 68, Scott Fernandez 73 68, Jacques Blaauw 71 70, Ashley Chesters 72 69, Pontus Widegren 67 74, Carlos Pigem 73 68, Pavit Tangkamolprasert 72 69, Johannes Veerman 69 72, Lyle Rowe 72 69
Missed the cut:-
142 – Jake Roos 72 70, Ulrich van den Berg 73 69, Hennie Otto 70 72, Jamie Donaldson 73 69, Gregory Havret 71 71, Mark Foster 72 70, Christofer Blomstrand 73 69, Scott Barr 70 72, Vaughn Groenewald 75 67, Jaco Ahlers 69 73, MJ Viljoen 73 69, Barry Lane 71 71, Tirawat Kaewsiribandit 72 70, Adrien Saddier 68 74, Honey Baisoya 70 72, Scott Hend 71 71, Micah Lauren Shin 70 72, Jean Hugo 71 71, Dawie Van der Walt 70 72, Ajeetesh Sandhu 74 68
143 – Connor Syme 72 71, Hennie du Plessis 76 67, Bradley Neil 71 72, Christiaan Bezuidenhout 72 71, Zander Lombard 73 70, Nicolas Colsaerts 75 68, Justin Harding 73 70, Andrew Curlewis 69 74
144 – Chanwoo Kim 73 71, Chris Swanepoel 75 69, Mitchell Slorach 72 72, Gavin Green 74 70, Daniel van Tonder 70 74, James Morrison 69 75, Sam Chien 73 71, Wolmer Murillo 75 69, JC Ritchie 74 70, Jake Higginbottom 70 74, Alfie Plant 71 73, Keenan Davidse 72 72
145 – Lorenzo Gagli 74 71, Rahil Gangjee 75 70, Javi Colomo 70 75, Raphael Jacquelin 69 76, Aaron Rai 73 72, Khalin Joshi 75 70, Teaghan Gauche 67 78
146 – Henric Sturehed 72 74, Jazz Janewattananond 74 72, Ruan de Smidt 76 70, Kyle Barker 70 76, Danthai Boonma 70 76
147 – Marc Cayeux 74 73, Estanislao Goya 71 76, Michael Tran 72 75, Chikkarangappa S 71 76, Chiragh Kumar 70 77, Gavin Moynihan 72 75, Alex Haindl 72 75, Brett Munson 72 75
148 – Darren Clarke 76 72, Toto Thimba 77 71, Espen Kofstad 76 72, Ryan Mccormick 72 76, Sebastien Gros 74 74
149 – Toby Tree 74 75, Ross McGowan 75 74
150 – Jonathan Thomson 79 71, Omar Sandys 71 79
151 – Jared Harvey 78 73, Ben Stow 76 75, Himmat Rai 73 78, Alexander Bjork 74 77, Piya Swangarunporn 74 77, Siddikur Rahman 77 74
152 – John Michael O’Toole 80 72, Phil Minkley 73 79
154 – Oscar Zetterwall 73 81
155 – Madalitso Muthiya 75 80, Sujjan Singh 77 78
157 – Petr Dedek 77 80
158 – Riekus Nortje 82 76
163 – Gerrit Foster 86 77
WDN – Ben Evans 77 WDN
RTD – Matthew Baldwin RTD RTD, Gary Stal 81 RTD, Lionel Weber 73 RTD, Titch Moore 73 RTD
