Norway’s Kristoffer Reitan will take a one-stroke lead into the weekend of the Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Gary Player, with Christiaan Bezuidenhout leading the South African challenge just three strokes behind him.
Reitan signed for a 69 on Friday that was more of a battle compared with his opening 63, and he leads this field on 12 under par overall.
“I’m pretty happy. I struggled with the approach shots, but my short game saved me a few times,” said Reitan.
His nearest challenger is Frenchman Adrien Saddier, whose round elicited comments of “outrageous” from the commentators on more than one occasion as he produced sublime bunker shots on his way to a 67 and a total of 11 under par.
And Bezuidenhout produced a 65 to lead the South African challenge in joint third place on nine under par alongside France’s Julien Guerrier.
Reitan again started strong with a birdie at the first, but he wasn’t able to unlock all of the secrets of this Gary Player Country Club course as he stumbled with back-to-back bogeys on 15 and 16 before finishing with a birdie on 18.
“It’s a tough course and I’m happy to finish strong with a birdie at the last. It’s difficult to stay patient out there. The wind goes in circles here so I had no idea what I was doing. It feels like it could be in any direction and that’s not a huge confidence boost when you’re standing over the golf ball. But I felt like I dealt with it as best as I could. You need to stay on it out there, and today I needed to grind a bit as well. I felt like I could’ve done a bit better with what I have control over. But it’s a good overall score. I’m happy to keep the momentum up with that birdie on the last after those back-to-back bogeys,” he said.
Behind him, Saddier made an equally fast start with an eagle on the par-five second after a magnificent bunker shot to within six feet of the hole. He birdied the third to keep his charge going. But the closing holes were also a challenge for him as he bogeyed two of the last three. In the midst of that was another terrific bunker shot on 17 to save par there.
“It was a pretty hot start which is good on this course. It’s a pity about the finish. The second on 17 was quite lucky because I didn’t expect to reach the green to be honest. It came off hot off the face, so it was lucky but I’ll take it. My long game is pretty solid and I just need to keep going for the next two days.”
Bezuidenhout is flying the South African flag heading into the weekend and following a second round highlighted by his hole-out from the bunker on the 11th for his fourth consecutive birdie.
“It was a solid day tee to green. I don’t feel like I’ve had my best yet iron wise, but I’ll work on that for the weekend. This has always been a tournament I’d love to win. I’ve been coming here since I was a kid and I’ve come close. I’ve put myself in a good position again,” he said.
Issued by Michael Vlisams Media
