Garcia retains Nedbank lead despite putting woes

SUN CITY, South Africa: Spaniard Sergio Garcia threeputted three times, but retained the lead at the halfway stage of the Nedbank Golf Challenge in Sun City Friday after shooting a oneunder-par 71 in the second round.

Star attraction Rory McIlroy from Northern Ireland could manage only a 71 at the Gary Player Country Club in northwestern South Africa, leaving him eight shots adrift of the 2017 Masters champion.

Garcia led by four strokes at the start of the day, but that advantage was cut to just one as South African Louis Oosthuizen fired a second-round 67 to climb to eightunder overall.

Garcia began with successive birdies, and picked up further shots on the par-four sixth, the par-five ninth and par-five 14th, but missed a short putt for par on the fifth, three-putted the 13th for a bogey and then dropped another shot on the 18th hole as his second putt horseshoed back at him.

"I felt I played nicely today, but I would love a few of those putts to go in tomorrow. It's not ideal to see three-putts, but some of the pins were almost impossible to get to and when you leave yourself 20 or 25 feet putting over hills then it is going to happen sometimes.

"Shooting 68 or 69 today would have been great, but unfortunately that didn't work out, but you have to be extremely precise on this course," said Garcia. - AFP