Ernie Els and Thomas Aiken are the best placed South Africans heading into the weekend at the 117th US Open at Erin Hills.
The duo won’t be joined on the weekend by Oliver Bekker, George Coetzee and surprisingly Charl Schwartzel. Schwartzel went out in three over 39 after two double bogeys and missed the cut when he bogeyed both 7 and 8 with a birdie on his last hole, the par 3 ninth, little consolation for the 2011 Masters champion.
Bekker will also be watching the weekend from the stands after four bogeys in six holes effectively ended his outside chance of turning it around in Wisconsin. A disastrous back nine cost Coetzee his place at the weekend. He started the day level turned at +2 but dropped six shots in his last seven holes, including two doubles, to miss the +1 cut line by some distance at +7.
At T24 after two rounds are Els and Aiken at two under. Els made the turn at -1 thanks to birdies at 11 and 17 with a bogey at 18 slowing him down. The Big Easy b0geyed the first and fifth to cancel out his birdie at 3 before finishing with four straight pars to finish as he heads into the weekend five off the pace.
Aiken carded a second 71 to move to -2 with his putter doing the work on Friday. Ranking 137th in the longest US Open layout, Aiken counterbalanced that on the greens where he was T10 with the flat stick. Turning at -2, he made three bogeys in his first four holes on the back nine but bounced back immediately with two birdies.
South Africa’s Olympic representative Brandon Stone made his first cut in a Major despite a 74 on Friday dropping him to level after 36 holes. Stone’s accuracy off the tee was not backed up with his irons as he went from T22 in fairways found (12/14) to T62 in greens in regulation (12/18).
Joining Stone in T43 are Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace. Oosthuizen found every fairway on Friday to put himself back into the action and made three birdies with just a single bogey on his card. Grace fired another 72 and it could’ve been 71 had he not bogeyed his last hole of the day, the tricky ninth hole.
Second round leaderboard (USA unless stated):
137 – Paul Casey (ENG) 66-71, Brian Harman 67-70, Brooks Koepka 67-70, Tommy Fleetwood (ENG) 67-70
138 – Jamie Lovemark 69-69, Rickie Fowler 65-73, J.B. Holmes 69-69
139 – Kim Si-Woo (KOR) 69-70, Xander Schauffele 66-73, Cameron Champ-a 70-69, Brandt Snedeker 70-69, Hideki Matsuyama (JPN) 74-65
140 – Brendan Steele 71-69, Marc Leishman (AUS) 68-72, Harris English 71-69, Bill Haas 72-68, Charley Hoffman 70-70, Chez Reavie 70-65
141 – William McGirt 70-71, Russell Henley 71-70, Sergio Garcia (ESP) 70-71, Bernd Wiesberger (AUT) 69-72
142 – Satoshi Kodaira (JPN) 73-69, Andrew Johnston (ENG) 69-73, Adam Hadwin (CAN) 68-74, Justin Thomas 73-69, Jonathan Randolph 71-71, Yusaku Miyazato (JPN) 72-70, Thomas Aiken (RSA) 71-71, David Lingmerth (SWE) 73-69, Ernie Els (RSA) 70-72
143 – Jack Maguire 70-73, Eddie Pepperell 72-71, Scottie Scheffler-a 69-74, Matt Fitzpatrick (ENG) 70-73, Trey Mullinax 71-72, Kim Meen-Whee (KOR) 73-70, Kevin Dougherty 71-72, Michael Putnam 73-70, Martin Laird (SCO) 72-71, Patrick Reed 68-75
144 – Brandon Stone (RSA) 70-74, Kevin Na 68-76, Louis Oosthuizen (RSA) 74-70, Jim Furyk 70-74, Kevin Chappell 74-70, Stewart Cink 74-70, Li Haotong (CHN) 74-70, Lee Westwood 69-75, Branden Grace (RSA) 72-72, Jordan Spieth 73-71
145 – Daniel Summerhays 73-72, Keegan Bradley 72-73, Shane Lowry (IRL) 71-74, Steve Stricker 73-72, Ryan Brehm 71-74, Jordan Niebrugge 73-72, Talor Gooch 74-71, Rafa Cabrera Bello (ESP) 72-73, Gary Woodland 72-73, Jason Kokrak 75-70, Zach Johnson 71-74, Matt Kuchar 74-71
MISSED CUT
146 – Kyle Thompson 76-70, Yuta Ikeda (JPN) 72-74, Pat Perez 76-70, Richie Ramsay 73-73, Peter Uihlein 74-72, Justin Rose (ENG) 72-74, Mason Andersen-a 73-73, Davis Love IV 71-75, Ross Fisher (ENG) 75-71, Lucas Glover 74-72
147 – Chris Wood (ENG) 73-74, Adam Scott (AUS) 72-75, C.T. Pan (TPE) 73-74, Henrik Stenson (SWE) 74-73, Charl Schwartzel (RSA) 71-76, An Byeong-Hun (KOR) 71-76, Maverick McNealy-a 73-74, Alex Smalley-a 73-74, Ryan Palmer 78-69, Bradley Dredge (WAL)74-73, Thomas Pieters (BEL) 76-71, Francesco Molinari (ITA) 74-73
148 – Troy Merritt 74-74, Bubba Watson 75-73, Roberto Diaz (MEX) 72-76, Hideto Tanihara (JPN) 72-76, Paul Dunne (IRL) 75-73, Bud Cauley 73-75, Tyrrell Hatton (ENG)_76-72, Scott Gregory-a (ENG) 75-73, Dustin Johnson 75-73
149 – Gregory Bourdy (FRA) 77-72, Sean O’Hair 76-73, Rory McIlroy (NIR) 78-71, Sam Ryder 76-73, Shugo Imahira (JPN) 76-73, Wang Jeung-Hun (KOR) 76-73, Jon Rahm (ESP) 76-73, Graeme McDowell (NIR) 76-73, Angel Cabrera (ARG) 71-78, Russell Knox (SCO) 73-76, Joaquin Niemann-a (CHI) 74-75, Joel Stalter (FRA) 77-72
150 – Wade Ormsby (AUS) 75-75, Chan Kim 74-76, Brad Dalke-a 78-72, Bryson DeChambeau 74-76, Scott Piercy 72-78, Jimmy Walker 77-73, Ted Potter Jr, 74-76, Andres Romero (ARG) 74-76, Brice Garnett 75-75, J.T. Poston 78-72, Alex Noren (SWE) 73-77, Christopher Crawford-a 75-75
151 – Oliver Bekker (RSA) 75-76, Ben Kohles 77-74, George Coetzee (RSA) 72-79, Matt Wallace (ENG) 76-75, Jason Dufner 76-75
152 – Corey Conners (CAN) 76-76, Alexander Levy (FRA) 77-75, Jhonattan Vegas (VEN) 77-75, Roberto Castro 76-76, Emiliano Grillo (ARG) 76-76, Andy Pope 77-75, Stewart Hagestad-a 77-75, Sahith Theegala-a 77-75
153 – Daniel Berger 78-75, Derek Barron 70-83, Aaron Rai (ENG) 73-80, Gene Sauers 77-76, Nick Flanagan (AUS) 75-79, Jason Day (AUS) 79-75, John Oda-a 78-76, Scott Harvey-a 78-76
156 – Brian Stuard 81-75
157 – Roman Robledo 78-79, Daniel Chopra (SWE) 77-80, Billy Horschel 79-78, Wesley Bryan 76-83, Walker Lee-a 81-83
Withdrew: Danny Willett (ENG) (81)
Photo: File
