Joost Luiten and Daniel Brown both made it into the St Francis Links’ clubhouse shortly before dark at the end of a long day in the SDC Championship and secured themselves a share of the clubhouse lead at St Francis Links.
The suspended second round was completed on Saturday morning, with Norway’s Kristian Johannessen finishing as the leader on 11 under par. The field then went straight into the third round, which was unable to be completed because of fading light.
But Luiten and Brown both managed to finish their rounds with respective 67s for the clubhouse lead on nine under par, while Johannessen and Matthew Baldwin share the on-course lead on 11 under par.
Johannessen is level par for his round through 13 holes, and Baldwin is four under for his round through 13 holes.
Luiten felt he could’ve done better than his 67 on a day when his putter held him back. “It was a good 11 holes and then the putter just went cold on the last seven holes. I gave myself a lot of chances and nothing went in so I’m a bit annoyed with that. I hit the ball lovely but it’s hard to hole putts on these greens. You’ve got to stay patient.”
But a bogey-free round helped to soothe some of those frustrations. “No bogeys on the scorecard is good. It was a good day overall. You know, five under on the Saturday is always a good score. But I think it could’ve been a couple better. I just need to see if I can drop some putts in the final round and put some pressure on the leaders.”
Brown was very pleased with his 67. “It was really solid. I didn’t do a lot wrong and it was just really steady. I still had 11 holes to go this morning and then I just kept feeling confident. It’s been pretty tough this week with the stop-start rounds. But it’s going to be nice to have the buzz of having a chance in the final round.” – Michael Vlismas
Photo Credit: Carl Fourie/Sunshine Tour.
Incomplete Scores:
11 – Matthew Baldwin 70 67 (-4) [13], Kristian Krogh Johannessen 67 66 (Par) [13]
-9 – Joost Luiten 69 71 67, Daniel Brown 70 70 67, Jens Dantorp 74 63 (-2) [14]
-8 – Thriston Lawrence 72 68 68
-7 – Jeong Weon Ko 76 66 67, Ross Fisher 71 67 (-1) [15]
-6 – Trevor Fisher Jnr 73 69 68, Ewen Ferguson 72 70 68, Jaco Ahlers 78 64 68, Adri Arnaus 72 68 70, Rafa Cabrera Bello 73 67 70, Shaun Norris 74 70 66, Brandon Stone 72 72 (-6) [17], Antoine Rozner 72 68 (-2) [16], David Ravetto 67 72 (-1) [15], Albert Venter 70 67 (+1) [15], Julien Brun 69 67 (+2) [13]
-5 – Thomas Aiken 72 70 69, Nick Bachem 69 72 70, Dale Whitnell 73 71 67, Ruan Korb 71 73 (-5) [15], John Catlin 71 67 (+1) [14]
-4 – Niklas Norgaard 76 66 70, Gavin Green 72 70 70, Casey Jarvis 73 69 70, Keenan Davidse 72 69 71, Dylan Mostert 73 70 69, James Kamte 71 70 71, Connor Syme 68 72 72, Matthieu Pavon 75 69 (-4) [16], Jean Hugo 72 67 (+1) [15]
-3 – Nacho Elvira 74 68 71, Dylan Naidoo 75 68 70, Oliver Bekker 72 71 70, Matthew Southgate 74 69 70, Jbe’ Kruger 73 69 71, Louis Albertse 70 73 70, Tom McKibbin 76 65 72, Louis de Jager 71 72 70, Luke Jerling 78 66 69, Jaco Prinsloo 72 72 (-3) [17]
-2 – Zander Lombard 71 72 71, Hennie Otto 73 71 (-2) [16], Sami Valimaki 70 70 (+2) [15], Richie Ramsay 73 67 (+2) [15], Neil Schietekat 73 71 (-2) [14]
-1 – Jaco Van Zyl 74 69 72, Justin Harding 71 70 74, Yeongsu Kim 74 70 71
Par – Jordan Smith 73 69 74, Hurly Long 74 68 74, Aaron Cockerill 77 66 73, Anton Karlsson 73 71 (Par) [16], Todd Clements 71 73 (Par) [14]
+1 – Alexander Levy 70 72 75, George Coetzee 72 71 74, Andy Sullivan 72 72 73, Bryce Easton 73 71 (+1) [16]
+2 – Luca Filippi 73 71 74
+3 – Daniel van Tonder 75 68 76, Sean Cronje 69 73 77
+4 – Keagan Thomas 79 64 77
+5 – Merrick Bremner 71 72 78
+6 – CJ du Plessis 74 69 79, Luke Brown 75 69 78
+8 – Robin Sciot-Siegrist 71 72 81