Clarke stays in touch

Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke was hanging in just behind the leaders when a massive thunderstorm stopped play at the Nedbank Challenge at the Gary Player Country Club at Sun City on Friday afternoon.

Clarke found the going a lot harder than he did in the first round on Thursday, when he managed a superb 66, as the fairways dried up under the scorching heat.

But birdies on the third, sixth and eighth made up for bogeys on the fourth and fifth to take the Ulsterman to the turn in 35.

He had played 10 holes when the thunder and lightning struck, forcing the players to scurry back to the enclosure and find some respite from the elements.

Clarke was two shots behind overnight leader Kenny Perry of the United States, the latter managing just two under par in the nine holes he had played to hold a slender one-shot lead over countryman Chris DiMarco.

The shot of the day belonged to a European as well as 2001 winner Sergio Garcia showed he is not out of the running yet with a beauty of an eagle on 10.

Garcia’s approach shot landed about 14 feet from the cup, and he holed to move alongside Clarke and American Jerry Kelly on seven-under.

Two South Africans – Tim Clark and Retief Goosen – both hovered just behind the leading pack at six under, while defending champion Ernie Els was experiencing another bad day at the office and was two over with four holes to play.

World number two Vijay Singh had an unhappy round, dropping two shots from his overnight share of the lead to be four off the pace while American youngster Charles Howell III was having a sensational round of golf. After starting the day at one over, with three holes to play he had grabbed five shots back to be four under.

Play is set to resume at 2.30pm Irish time unless the heavens open again.