England’s Jeff Inglis powered his way to the summit of the leaderboard in the second round of the 54-hole Big Easy-MENA Tour ‘The Roar’ when he shot seven-under-par 65 to total 10-under for the week at Waterkloof Golf Club on Wednesday.
‘Today was good,’ Inglis said, ‘and a couple of putts fell, for once. A couple of three-putts coming in but you know, 65, any round under par is good, you know. I got off to a nice start and I just rolled along all day.’
He came into the round four strokes behind the leading trio of Daniel Hammond, Stefan Engell Andersen and JJ Senekal on three-under-par. He opened the second round in Pretoria with a par on the first before he made four consecutive birdies, a par on six and another birdie on seven.
‘For the last six weeks I’ve been hitting quality shots,’ he said about that stretch of birdies from two to five, ‘but I haven’t been converting, so I worked with a guy from Titleist two weeks ago, trying to get the putter.’ That putter was on song at Waterkloof.
Sharing second are overnight leaders Senekal and Hammond, along with Danie van Niekerk, all on nine-under for the tournament. Senekal and Hammond both shot 70s on Wednesday to consolidate the seven-under 65s they signed for in round one. Senekal says it was important to stay calm in certain moments.
‘You’ve just got to stay calm out here,’ Senekal said, ‘There are going to be mistakes every now and then and you have to stay positive and bounce back from them. The guys out here, even on the Big Easy and MENA Tour, are great golfers, so to be at the top of the leaderboard right now is awesome.’
Behind that trio on moving day is Cyril Suk of the Czech Republic, together with Aubrey Beckley, Matias Calderon and Breyten Meyer, who share the fifth spot on a total eight-under par. Also making most of moving day was Michael Palmer, who shot a bogey-free seven-under-65 to tie at ninth spot with Pieter Kruger and Simon Kruger on seven-under.
The final round of this event, a third and final in a series of three co-sanctioned by the Big Easy Tour and MENA Tour, promises to be a thriller, with the chasing pack only a shot or two behind.
Second round scores
134 – Jeff Inglis 69 65
135 – JJ Senekal 65 70, Daniel Hammond 65 70, Danie Van Niekerk 67 68
136 – Cyril Suk 68 68, Aubrey Beckley 68 68, Matias Calderon 67 69, Breyten Meyer 67 69
137 – Pieter Kruger 70 67, Michael Palmer 72 65, Simon Kruger 72 65
138 – Musiwalo Nethunzwi 71 67, Jake Redman 67 71, Jordan Garnish 71 67, Jamie Elson 69 69, Matthew Spacey 69 69
139 – Jason Smith 68 71, Toto Thimba 70 69, Combrinck Smit 70 69, Bryce Bibby 72 67, Jacques P de Villiers 70 69, Marco de Beer 72 67, Stefan Engell Andersen 65 74
140 – Dylan O’Leary 68 72, Henric Sturehed 69 71, Sean Bradley 73 67, Etienne Bond 67 73, Ben Amor 71 69, N.J. Arnoldi 72 68
141 – Tyrone Ryan 70 71, Francois Coetzee 72 69, Karabo Mokoena 68 73, Max Smith 74 67
142 – Abhishek Jha 69 73, Craig Kieswetter 71 71, Paul Colditz 73 69, Luke Jerling 71 71, Bradford Vaughan 70 72, Irvin Mazibuko 69 73, Fredrik From 69 73, Jason Diab 71 71
143 – Dayne Moore 76 67, Scott Campbell 74 69, Stuart Smith 75 68, Craig Hinton 71 72, Wynand Dingle 75 68, Antonio Costa 69 74, Andrew van der Knaap 68 75, Bryce McCabe 73 70, Dylan Kok 74 69, Desne Van Den Bergh 73 70
144 – Morne Buys 71 73, Antonio Rosado 70 74, Jesper Alm 71 73, Coert Groenewald 73 71, Riekus Nortje 74 70, Justin Turner 70 74, Gert Myburgh 70 74, Teagan Moore 69 75, Teboho Sefatsa 73 71
Missed the cut:
145 – Quintin Wilsnach 73 72, Damon Stephenson 72 73, Dylan Docherty 72 73, Heinrich Bruiners 70 75, Arkesh Bhatia 70 75, Duane Keun 76 69, Mark Murless 75 70, Paul de Beer 71 74, Roux Jeffery 78 67
146 – Jonathan Waschefort 70 76, Bennie van der Merwe 76 70, Jacquin Hess 76 70, Byron Garvie 75 71, Omar Sandys 73 73, PH McIntyre 68 78
147 – Andrew Odoh 72 75, Allister de Kock 72 75, Wayne Stroebel 74 73, Maritz Wessels 72 75, Adriel Poonan 73 74, Thabang Simon 74 73
148 – Brett Liddle 73 75, Andi Dill 76 72, Cameron Esau 74 74, Jaco Mouton 74 74, Kevin Rhoderick 74 74, Tiago Lobo 74 74, Elliot Bradley 73 75
149 – Burger Heckroodt 74 75, Dwayne Basson 77 72, Andrew Burmester 76 73, Bryn Flanagan 78 71
150 – Kenneth Dube 75 75, Edward Kent 78 72, Jack Duthie 73 77
151 – Gerard du Plooy 77 74, Chris van der Meulen 71 80, Matthew Williams 70 81, Sipho Bujela 73 78, Matt Carroll 77 74
153 – Phumlani Maluka 73 80
154 – Sam Hobday 80 74
155 – Russel Franz 76 79, Daniel Scourfield 75 80, Neal Herman 78 77
157 – Ganeev Giddie 74 83, Michael Dreyer 81 76
158 – Sami Keating 77 81
160 – Neezy Thubisi 80 80
162 – Heino Havenga 81 81