George Coetzee converted home-town advantage into a second-round lead on Friday at the Pretoria Country Club as he fired a bogey-free seven-under-par 64 to edge one clear in the Tshwane Open.
He made six birdies on his opening nine holes after starting on the 10th, and just one on his way home, but it was enough to edge him ahead of Mikko Korhonen of Finland and Chile’s Felipe Aguilar, who carded 64 and 67 respectively to take up second behind Coetzee at the halfway mark.
‘The course doesn’t suit my game 100 percent, but I grew up on it and I have figured out a way to play it,’ said Coetzee going into the tournament. ‘It’s just nice being at home and playing an event where you know everyone supports you.’
He had it all figured out on his opening nine on Friday.
‘It was a nice stretch on the back nine – my front nine – where I got a couple of birdies in a row,’ he said.
It was actually four in a row from 12 to 15, and he picked up two more on 17 and 18.
‘On the front nine – my back nine – I felt like I played pretty well. I just didn’t get the ball in the hole but I guess that’s the way golf works. I played really badly on the front nine yesterday, and I still shot two-under. Today I played pretty well and I shot one-under,’ he added.
Korhonen, who finished second in last year’s Tshwane Open, also started on the 10th. He dropped a shot after the turn on the first, but eagled the ninth to slip into second with Aguilar.
Aguilar, who carded a fine 65 in his opening round by making a virtue of being really conservative, made a pair of bogeys on his way in which somewhat spoiled his second round.
On seven-under, behind the leading three, were South Africans Justin Walters who signed for a 68, reigning Zimbabwe Open champion JC Ritchie who carded a 67, Louis de Jager who finished level-par and Portugal’s Ricardo Gouveia who shot 69.
With the weekend ahead, Coetzee can look back on what he said ahead of the tournament with some satisfaction.
‘I haven’t come to my home course thinking I just want to make the cut,’ he said.
‘It would be nice to build some momentum for the rest of the season.’
And he knows exactly how to do it at Pretoria Country Club.
‘I’ll try and just focus on playing decent golf and posting good numbers for the weekend,’ he said.
Second round leaderboard:
131 – George Coetzee 67 64
132 – Mikko Korhonen 68 64, Felipe Aguilar 65 67
135 – Justin Walters 67 68, Ricardo Gouveia 67 68, JC Ritchie 68 67, Louis de Jager 64 71
136 – Christiaan Bezuidenhout 67 69, Erik van Rooyen 68 68, Scott Jamieson 67 69, Clement Sordet 68 68, Thomas Aiken 65 71, Combrinck Smit 66 70
137 – Laurie Canter 73 64, Jinho Choi 67 70, Christofer Blomstrand 69 68, Matthew Baldwin 68 69, Sam Horsfield 68 69, Victor Perez 69 68, Scott Vincent 68 69, Bryce Easton 68 69, Jaco Prinsloo 68 69
138 – Ockie Strydom 73 65, Matthew Carvell 69 69, Danny Willett 70 68, Gregory Bourdy 68 70, Alex Haindl 69 69, Maximilian Kieffer 67 71, Shaun Norris 66 72, Lorenzo Gagli 72 66, Jacques Kruyswijk 69 69, Connor Syme 70 68
139 – Breyten Meyer 67 72, Hennie Otto 69 70, Hennie du Plessis 69 70, Jens Dantorp 70 69, Daniel van Tonder 67 72, Toby Tree 70 69, Patrick Newcomb 67 72, Peter Karmis 69 70, Julian Suri 65 74, Jeff Winther 67 72, Adilson Da Silva 67 72, Sebastien Gros 69 70, JJ Senekal 67 72
140 – Jacques Blaauw 71 69, Dawie Van der Walt 72 68, Ryan Evans 69 71, Richard Sterne 67 73, Charlie Ford 72 68, David Howell 70 70, Morten Orum Madsen 69 71, Grant Forrest 70 70, Jean Hugo 69 71, Haydn Porteous 70 70, Matthias Schwab 68 72, Pedro Oriol 71 69
141 – Daniel Greene 70 71, Kyle McClatchie 69 72, Christopher Mivis 67 74, Mark Williams 70 71, Julien Quesne 73 68, Benjamin Hebert 69 72, Julien Guerrier 69 72, Tyrone Ryan 71 70, Lyle Rowe 70 71, Madalitso Muthiya 72 69, Soomin Lee 71 70, Jonathan Thomson 68 73, Tjaart van der Walt 71 70, Darren Fichardt 68 73, Toto Thimba 70 71, Robin Sciot-Siegrist 67 74
Missed the cut:
142 – Raphael Jacquelin 72 70, Wallie Coetsee 72 70, Marcus Kinhult 72 70, Steven Brown 72 70, Callum Mowat 73 69, Richard Mcevoy 71 71, Justin Harding 71 71, Zander Lombard 70 72, Tapio Pulkkanen 69 73, Oliver Bekker 73 69, Garth Mulroy 69 73, Oliver Farr 74 68, Rourke van der Spuy 70 72, Christiaan Basson 70 72
143 – Tom Murray 74 69, Alexander Knappe 72 71, Trevor Fisher Jnr 72 71, Doug McGuigan 72 71, Matthew Nixon 72 71, Jack Singh Brar 71 72, Aaron Rai 70 73, Jake Roos 74 69, Ross McGowan 72 71, Alexander Bjork 71 72, Jean-Paul Strydom 71 72, Nino Bertasio 69 74, James Heath 69 74
144 – Romain Langasque 70 74, Jaco Ahlers 72 72, David Drysdale 69 75, Duncan Stewart 71 73, Damon Stephenson 70 74, Merrick Bremner 70 74, Ashley Chesters 68 76, Pontus Widegren 73 71, Vaughn Groenewald 69 75
145 – Rhys West 72 73, Jason Norris 74 71, Bernd Ritthammer 71 74, James Kingston 72 73, Daan Huizing 74 71, Neil Schietekat 72 73, Bradley Neil 72 73, Scott Fernandez 67 78, Riekus Nortje 73 72, Chris Lloyd 77 68, Jbe’ Kruger 72 73, Henric Sturehed 74 71
146 – Andre De Decker 72 74, Chris Swanepoel 72 74, Pep Angles 69 77, Anthony Michael 70 76, Andrea Pavan 73 73, Ruan de Smidt 71 75, Nico Geyger 72 74, Richard Bland 72 74
147 – Keith Horne 71 76, Makhetha Mazibuko 76 71, Jacquin Hess 76 71, Tyrone Ferreira 74 73, Zack Byrd 75 72
148 – Rak hyun Cho 76 72, Gavin Moynihan 75 73, Ben Evans 73 75, Lindani Ndwandwe 75 73, Marcel Schneider 74 74, Chris Cannon 73 75
149 – Garrick Porteous 75 74, CJ du Plessis 77 72, Marc Cayeux 73 76
150 – MJ Viljoen 74 76, Rhys Enoch 74 76, Mark Foster 71 79, Matias Calderon 71 79
151 – Titch Moore 73 78
152 – Jared Harvey 74 78, Dwayne Basson 70 82
153 – Keenan Davidse 79 74
154 – Altaaf Bux 79 75
168 – Petr Dedek 83 85
WDN – Chase Koepka 77 WDN, Daniel Brooks 76 WDN
RTD – Ulrich van den Berg 68 RTD
Photo: Luke Walker/Sunshine Tour/Gallo Images
