Chasing his first win on the European Tour, Erik van Rooyen continued his fine work at the Royal Golf Dar Es Salam to sit third heading into the weekend, writes WADE PRETORIUS.
The South African has two top tens this season since graduating from the Challenge Tour and heads into another weekend on tour with at least a chance of notching up a third after a 71 on Friday.
Just nine players, one of them being South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout, broke 70 in round two as the wind came up and played in the minds of Europe’s best.
Two birdies in his first 13 holes saw Van Rooyen, who won the 2017 PGA Championship at Eye of Africa, get to six under and leapfrog the multiple European Tour winners but he failed to hold on to his advantage.
It was a bogey at the 16th, a hole he birdied on Thursday, that would see him surrender his lead as Spain’s Alviro Quiros grabbed the lead thanks to a birdie, birdie finish. Australia’s Andrew Dodt fired a 68 to sit second between Quiros and Van Rooyen.
Quiros has a history of being the dampener to a South African party after he denied Charl Schwartzel in the 2006 Alfred Dunhill before edging Zander Lombard in a playoff at the Rocco Forte Open in Sicily last year.
Bezuidenhout is South Africa’s next best at -2 and sits in a share of 10th, two shots better than Richard Sterne and birthday boy Brandon Stone.
Stone turned 25 on Friday and opened his new year with a birdie on the 1st en route to a 70.
At +2, Dean Burmester (73) and Darren Fichardt (75) complete the list of Saffas heading into the weekend with as many as six heading to their next destination after being brushed by the wayside in Rabat.
Photo: Andrew Redington/Getty Images
