Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Sullivan a good bet to win tough SA Open
Englishman leads but SA’s Schwartzel sizzles over closing holes
ENGLAND’S Andy Sullivan lists poker as one of his interests on the European Tour website, and being a “gamblin’ man” he might just want to have a flutter on his chances of winning the South African Open at Glendower come tomorrow afternoon.
On a day in which joint overnight leader Jbe Kruger ballooned to an 80 and tournament host Ernie Els suffered two triple-bogeys in a row en route to a 77, the 27-year-old Sullivan added a 70 yesterday to his opening 66 – a score he shared with Kruger on Thursday – and leads this 1million event at the halfway mark on eight-under-par 136.
Just one off the pace is South Africa’s Charl Schwartzel, bidding for his first SA Open win. He started his round at the 10th which means his last three holes were Nos 7, 8 and 9 where he went birdieeagle-birdie. Els played those same holes in par (4), bogey (6), and triple- bogey ( 7), before also making a triple at the par4 10th. In fact, there was a 10- shot swing between Schwartzel and Els in that four-hole stretch.
It seems crazy, doesn’t it? But then that’s what you get at this “Green Monster” that is Glendower. The US PGA Tour have their Blue Monster course at the Doral Resort in Miami. In Ekurhuleni, Glendower can justifiably be called the Green Monster. It’s long and tough and lush and green and the thick kikuyu rough is the nastiest most of the players have ever seen.
As Els said earlier this week, “it’s a beast and it can bite you hard”. And he found that out yesterday. Els is on level-par 144 after his opening 67 – still not out of it – while Kruger just squeezes into the weekend on the cutline of twoover par 146.
“At the fifth hole I was in the left-hand rough and the ball was sitting so far down in the rough that I could only see a tiny bit of it. I took two practice swings and then I couldn’t see it at all and we had to look for it again,” said Sullivan who made one of his two bogeys there, which were interspersed with four birdies.
“It’s always hard to back up a low round (like his 66 on Thursday) with another good round and so to shoot 70 today when the course was playing even tougher than yesterday because of the wind was pretty pleasing,” said the Englishman who earned himself a trip into space (still to be taken up) for making an ace at the KLM Open in The Netherlands.
“Normally I play well in rounds three and four rather than one and two so I’ve made a good start and I’ve done well in South Africa before so I’m looking forward to this weekend. Maybe it’s the red shirts I’ve worn yesterday and today.
I think I’ll wear red again tomorrow!” he exclaimed. Schwartzel, who has a sore toe which makes it painful to walk but not swing, was struggling to get his round going and was one-over with three to play, but he delivered some magic shots to wrap up the day.
“That’s how you turn a bad round into a good one. It’s also how you win golf tournaments,” he said. The 2011 Masters champion had six oneputts in a row at one stage. So how did he feel about that?
“It’s either good putting or I’m hitting it too poorly (implying that he missed greens and chipped and one-putted)! But I’ve been trying to get some of the old feelings back. I’ve spent the last three days on the putting green here trying to figure out something. I’ve been trying to do the things that I did as a junior, never mind as a pro, to create some sort of feeling, and I did have a much better rhythm going today.”
Schwartzel said his finalround meltdown when in con- tention to win here last year had left some scars.
“It was just one poor shot really (when he took a watery triple-bogey six at the sixth) and bad luck at the 10th. So a win this time would be special, to have my name on the trophy alongside so many great players.”
SA pair Colin Nel (70 yesterday) and JJ Senekal (after a superb 67) and Denmark’s Lasse Jensen (71) are bracketed in third place on 138.