Strong winds and rain played havoc with Branden Grace’s chances as he slipped down the leaderboard with a second round 74, writes WADE PRETORIUS.
The Fancourt professional is known for thriving in difficult conditions – at least three of his seven wins have come in tough conditions – but was unable to take advantage of his good start at Royal Birkdale on Friday afternoon, after opening with three consecutive pars and making birdie at the fourth hole.
Two bogeys on the front nine – at 6 and 8 – dropped him over par for the championship as he made the turn in 35. The drama escalated when he went par, bogey, bogey, par, bogey, before failing to birdie either of the par 5s on the back nine.
With the entire afternoon field struggling, Grace’s round was not disastrous in the grand scheme of things, but did all but end his run at winning his first Major.
A short weather-enforced suspension interrupted his run-in, but he closed with a par to sit safely inside the cut line.
On Thursday, Grace took just 24 putts but hit seven more on Friday which did not help the cause, and will look to spend some time working on his game if he wants to move up the leaderboard on the weekend.
Grace will be joined on the weekend by countryman Brandon Stone, who is set to make the cut, despite four consecutive bogeys from the turn.
Stone had one bogey and one birdie on his outward nine, but dropped out of the running to be around this weekend with a terrible stretch, before making birdies at both of the back nine’s par 5s to move to +5 and on the cut line late on Friday.
Guaranteed to be missing out this weekend are Jbe Kruger, who went 76 and then 72 on Friday, and Darren Fichardt, who fell out of the picture with an 81 on Friday. The Sunshine Tour veteran made five bogeys and three doubles to shoot 10 shots more than his effort from Thursday.
At the time of writing, Dylan Frittelli had doubled the 17th to drop behind the cut line, with Louis Oosthuizen also set to sit out the weekend as he continued to toil at Royal Birkdale. He was +3 after 12 on Friday after a 78 on Thursday.
