There’s one thing golfers hold their breath for, but have no control over: poor weather conditions.
At Wentworth in Surrey, England, the second round of the BMW PGA Championship could not be completed late Friday afternoon after play could not take place for about 80 minutes earlier in the day due to dense fog.
This led to a bottleneck of players on the 18th hole and there was also a drunken spectator who got involved in an altercation with Tomas Björn from Denmark. The electronic scoreboard next to the 18th green also had to be used as a floodlight to illuminate the green.
The two Swedish players Sebastian Söderberg and Ludvig Aaberg, one of the rookies at this year’s upcoming Ryder Cup tournament, lead the European Series’ PGA Championship together on 134 strokes (-10).
They are followed by Japan’s Mashiro Kawamura, Belgium’s Thomas Detry, Poland’s Adrian Meronk and England’s Tommy Fleetwood (all together on 135, -9), with Austria’s Sepp Straka and England’s Aaron Rai tied on 136 shots (-8 ) ended.
Denmark’s Marcus Heligkilde is also at -8, but he was on the 14th hole when it got too dark to continue playing.
Of the South Africans, Louis de Jager and Zander Lombard (both 141, -3) and Oliver Bekker (143, -1) will qualify for the third round, but the ax will soon fall on Thriston Lawrence (145), Ockie Strydom and Justin Walters (both 149) and JC Ritchie (151) bag.
SA weather also rears its head
In Stellenbosch, the second round of Vodacom Origins’ Western Cape tournament at the Devonvale golf and wine estate could also not be completed due to wind and rain.
In this tournament, South Africa’s Pieter Moolman (-5) is two shots ahead of CJ du Plessis (-3) after the unfinished second round of the Vodacom Origins of Golf tournament which is part of the local Sunshine Series.
Moolman finished his round just before it got too dark.
Louis Albertse, Albert Venter, Robin Williams and Pierre Pellegrin (Mauritius) were all together at -2, although Pellegrin still has three holes to complete on Saturday.
Kyle McClatchie, Rupert Kaminskly, the American Clancy Waugh, Nikhil Rama and Martin Rohwer are all together at -1.
In the US PGA Series’ Fortinet Tournament to be decided at the Silverado Country Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, American Sahith Theegala and South Korean Seong-Hyeon share a 132-shot lead (-12) after the second round .
Kim’s compatriot Sang-Moon Bee is third at 133 (-11) with the American Eric Cole fourth at 134, followed by his compatriots Kelly Kraft (135), Max Homa, Justin Lower, Justin Thomas and Sam Ryder and the Aussie Cameron Davis who are all together sixth at 136, (-8).
South Africa’s Erik van Rooyen is 19th at 138 (-6).
