Daniel van Tonder insists he likes playing the wind but coped just as well without the strong conditions to lead the Cape Town Open on Friday at Royal Cape Golf Club, writes WADE PRETORIUS.
The 28-year-old manhandled King David Mowbray on Thursday despite the gusting winds and then took advantage with a second bogey-free round to set the pace at -11.
He leads the Cape Town Open at the halfway point although JC Ritchie, a late starter at Royal Cape, threatened to make up ground. The winner of the first leg of the Challenge Tour’s South African swing turned -5 through nine to sit two back but his inward run yielded just one birdie with two bogeys stunting his progress.
Touch of class from JC Ritchie ?#CapeTownOpen pic.twitter.com/XVnncxxST5
— Challenge Tour (@Challenge_Tour) February 7, 2020
Van Tonder’s opening nine – he started off the 10th – yielded just one birdie and his day looked to stagnate as he opened his run towards the clubhouse with three straight pars. A birdie at the short fourth hole sparked him into life as he rattled off gains at the 6th, 7th and 9th holes to move ahead of the field.
Aron Zemmer of Italy produced a 65 to move into second along with England’s Mitch Waite alone in third.
Ritchie sat alongside England’s Toby Tree (67-69) in fourth with another Englishman, Harry Ellis, and German Max Schmitt four back in sixth.
Former top-ranked amateur Wilco Nienaber, second last week, joined experienced pair Neil Schietekat and Jean Hugo alongside Australia’s Deyen Lawson in 10th place.
Luke Jerling’s 66 at Royal Cape helped him join Brandon Stone and Thriston Lawrence inside the top 15 but the trio after seven strokes off the pace.
Birdie to finish ✅
11 under par. Van Tonder leads by three.#CapeTownOpen pic.twitter.com/3swlkmvAbg
— Challenge Tour (@Challenge_Tour) February 7, 2020
‘We made it easy out there today,’ said the 36-hole leader. ‘I recovered from the missed shots and holed some good putts, so it seems simple when you play that way.
‘It is a lot calmer out there today. Yesterday was a bit of a mission with the wind, whereas today it was only a one club wind for me, so it wasn’t as bad. You still need to hit the right shots and strike the ball well if you are going to play well.
‘Both of the venues play fairly similar, but the greens here roll a bit faster. I managed to get a good feel for them and adjusted well today.
‘I’m just going to forget about my position going into tomorrow so that you play against the course rather than other people. At the end of the day, if you beat the course then you beat the people.’
Second round leaderboard:
133 – Daniel van Tonder 66 67
134 – Aron Zemmer 69 65
135 – Mitch Waite 69 66
136 – Toby Tree 67 69, JC Ritchie 68 68
137 – Harry Ellis 69 68, Max Schmitt 70 67
138 – Jonathan Thomson 72 66, Daniel Young 72 66
139 – Jean Hugo 70 69, Neil Schietekat 71 68, Deyen Lawson 70 69, Wilco Nienaber 71 68
140 – Allen John 72 68, Daan Huizing 73 67, Luke Jerling 74 66, Enrico Di Nitto 71 69, Bernd Ritthammer 70 70, Brandon Stone 71 69, Pedro Oriol 71 69, Thriston Lawrence 73 67
141 – Dylan Naidoo 71 70, Deon Germishuys 74 67, Chris Cannon 73 68, Gavin Moynihan 74 67, Eirik Tage Johansen 73 68, Garrick Higgo 74 67, Jonas Kolbing 71 70, Jacques P de Villiers 72 69, Breyten Meyer 75 66, Louis Albertse 73 68, Martin Simonsen 70 71, Damien Perrier 68 73, Nicolai Kristensen 70 71, Rhys Enoch 72 69, Jacques Kruyswijk 72 69, Stephen Ferreira 73 68, Anton Karlsson 72 69
142 – Jordan Wrisdale 73 69, Alex Haindl 74 68, Jens Fahrbring 73 69, James Hart du Preez 73 69, Santiago Tarrio Ben 71 71, Andrew van der Knaap 74 68, Adilson Da Silva 70 72, Jean-Paul Strydom 71 71, Lorenzo Scalise 70 72, Clement Sordet 74 68, Lyle Rowe 72 70, Gudmundur Kristjansson 76 66
143 – Jacob Glennemo 74 69, Robin Petersson 73 70, Matthew Baldwin 74 69, Todd Clements 76 67, Ben Stow 76 67, Euan Walker 75 68, Jason Diab 71 72, Ruan de Smidt 73 70, Daniel Greene 72 71, Robin Dawson 77 66, Paul Boshoff 75 68, Federico Maccario 72 71, Daniel Gavins 73 70, CJ du Plessis 74 69, Marcel Siem 70 73, Tristen Strydom 71 72, Mathieu Fenasse 71 72, Alexander Knappe 73 70
Missed the cut:
144 – Anton Haig 75 69, Ewen Ferguson 73 71, Jacques Blaauw 73 71, Jaco Ahlers 73 71, Gary Stal 73 71, Peter Karmis 74 70, Laurie Canter 74 70, Jake Roos 72 72, Roope Kakko 75 69, Henric Sturehed 72 72, MJ Viljoen 73 71, Andre Nel 74 70, Tyrone Ryan 72 72, Alfie Plant 75 69, Marcel Schneider 70 74, Raphael de Sousa 71 73, Steve Surry 73 71, Ockie Strydom 76 68, Fredrik From 73 71, Christiaan Basson 75 69
145 – Pep Angles 75 70, Jens Dantorp 76 69, Keenan Davidse 73 72, Oliver Lindell 77 68, Jacquin Hess 76 69, Erhard Lambrechts 72 73, Philip Geerts 76 69, Christopher Mivis 70 75, Niklas Norgaard Moller 76 69, Musiwalo Nethunzwi 76 69, Ulrich van den Berg 74 71, Matt Ford 77 68, Felix Mory 72 73, Stuart Manley 71 74, Philip Eriksson 73 72, Jack Harrison 73 72, Rupert Kaminski 74 71, Stefan Wears-Taylor 75 70
146 – Makhetha Mazibuko 75 71, Jaco Van Zyl 77 69, Dominic Foos 74 72, Jaco Prinsloo 79 67, Victor Lange 76 70, Jbe’ Kruger 75 71, Benjamin Follett-Smith 77 69, Toto Thimba 75 71, David Dixon 77 69, David Boote 75 71
147 – Jack Floydd 79 68, Oliver Gillberg 75 72, James Kamte 73 74, Benjamin Rusch 73 74, Liam Johnston 78 69, Matias Calderon 79 68, Stanislav Matus 76 71, Garth Mulroy 75 72, Tom Gandy 76 71, Minkyu Kim 73 74, Ben Evans 77 70, Gerrit Foster 74 73, James Allan 77 70, Franklin Manchest 74 73, Mikael Lundberg 79 68, Hennie du Plessis 76 71, Kristoffer Reitan 74 73, Nathan Kimsey 75 72, Ross Mcgowan 76 71, Jayden Schaper 72 75, Heinrich Bruiners 74 73, Scott Fernandez 74 73
148 – Oscar Lengden 79 69, Niall Kearney 76 72, Merrick Bremner 74 74, Justin Walters 78 70, Hurly Long 79 69, Derick Petersen 74 74, Keelan Africa 74 74, Nicolai Von Dellingshausen 73 75, Mark Williams 76 72, Anthony Michael 79 69, Oliver Bekker 74 74, Madalitso Muthiya 75 73, Allister de Kock 77 71, Frederic Lacroix 78 70
149 – Craig Howie 74 75, Keith Horne 77 72, Chase Hanna 75 74, Robbie Van West 77 72, JJ Senekal 78 71, Ryan Cairns 77 72, Joel Stalter 76 73, Martin Ovesen 82 67, Lauri Ruuska 79 70, Riekus Nortje 73 76, Titch Moore 76 73
150 – Ruan Conradie 82 68, Clancy Waugh 78 72, Daniel Brooks 76 74, Trevor Fisher Jnr 73 77, Richard Mansell 78 72, Ricardo Gouveia 76 74, Zander Lombard 73 77, Andre De Decker 73 77, Thomas Linard 74 76
151 – Martin Rohwer 78 73, Moritz Lampert 77 74, Hinrich Arkenau 73 78, David Borda 74 77
152 – Christopher Sahlstrom 78 74, Bryce Easton 79 73, Michael Hoey 79 73, Juran Dreyer 77 75, Rourke van der Spuy 78 74, Doug McGuigan 77 75
153 – David McIntyre 80 73, Ugo Coussaud 82 71, Kyle Barker 81 72, Emilio Cuartero Blanco 74 79, Marc Cayeux 78 75
154 – Christofer Blomstrand 81 73, Vaughn Groenewald 83 71, Callum Mowat 80 74, Chris Swanepoel 81 73, Pelle Edberg 74 80, Yubin Jung 79 75, Clinton Grobler 81 73
156 – Jake Redman 80 76
157 – Michael Palmer 81 76, Estiaan Conradie 79 78
163 – Pieter Moolman 82 81
WDN – Martin Wiegele 77 WDN, Bradley Neil 78 WDN, Nicolai Hojgaard 75 WDN
RTD – Timon Baltl RTD RTD, Haraldur Magnus RTD RTD, Hennie Otto 75 RTD
Photo: Shaun Roy/Sunshine Tour/Gallo Images
