Fuente: © Southern Africa Tour
http://www.sunshinetour.com/

SOUTHERN AFRICA TOUR: Vaughan and Sterne hold off charging Goose

/noticias.info/ Defending champion Bradford Vaughan and Nashua Masters champion Richard Sterne have taken the second round lead at the Limpopo Classic two strokes ahead of double US Open champion Retief Goosen.

Vaughan carded a sizzling four-under-par 67 at the Polokwane Golf Club, while Sterne fired his second successive five-under-par 66 to share the lead on ten-under-par 132.

The pair face a strong challenge from Dion Fourie and Tjaart van der Walt, who sit just one stroke off the pace.

Van der Walt’s PGA Tour experience held him in good stead as he fired an unofficial course record 62 to make a massive leap to a share of second after finishing the first round with a share of 57th.

Overnight leader Titch Moore struggled to find form and returned a 71 to stay at seven-under, thanks to some amazing scrambling, especially over the back nine.

Vaughan, a six-time Sunshine Tour winner, made a charge for the lead from the outset.

“I was on autopilot and just playing solid,” said Vaughan. “If I was in the slightest bit of trouble I just made a good up and down. When my long game failed then my short game saved me. This course has a good feel for me and I played confidently. It fits my eye well.”

The Vanderbijlpark professional holed a birdie at the 1st, followed by an eagle on the third, which he holed from 40-feet.

Equally impressive was a five-foot putt to save par, after hitting his second shot into a donga to the right of the 15th green.

Vaughan powered ahead until the penultimate hole when his fairway shot ended up just to the right of the bunker adjacent to the green.

“I got too cute with the chip and I ended up in the bunker for a double,” Vaughan said.

On the final hole he hit a 3-iron into onto the dust cart track. Matters didn’t improve when he ended up in the water and finished bogey.

“I felt like I finished up in an ambulance with the lights flashing,” quipped Vaughan.

Richard Sterne on the other hand was delighted with his finish, which featured a trio of birdies on the final three holes.

“It was tough with the wind blowing into the greens but I made six birdies in one day which was great,” Sterne said. “I’m looking forward to playing this summer and it’s good to be home.”

Retief Goosen is definitely in contention, shaking off a wobbly start to the tournament to finish in a share of fifth on eight-under-par 134.

The Goose powered ahead after starting the second round par-bogey, but the back nine was where he really put on a spectacular show for his appreciating fans, coming home with three birdies and an eagle on the par-5 17th.

“I’m glad I put in a good performance over the last couple of holes and I feel like I’m finally getting over the jet lag,” Goosen said.

“The course is short but it’s so dry out there you can’t hit it that far. You have to keep your ball under control otherwise you’ll end up in the rough and then it can go anywhere because it bounces too much. The doglegs were difficult to play and the cross-winds in the afternoon made it even more so.”

Nigeria’s Edet Umoh was disqualified only two weeks after gaining his card at Tour School.

Umoh noticed his score was incorrect on the leaderboard and reported the error to Tournament Director, Theo Manyama, who subsequently discovered that he had signed for an incorrect score on the 14th.

Polokwane Golf Course will be packed tomorrow with hordes of local admirers seeing if the Goose can make it one step closer to a home ground victory. notas_de_prensa_archivo