Durban disaster for Mackenzie

England’s Malcolm Mackenzie suffered a dreadful morning in the second round of the SAA Open at the Royal Durban Country Club today.

Mackenzie, who had been three strokes behind the overnight leaders, experienced a shocking start with bogeys on the second and fourth holes and a double bogey at the fifth which saw him drop back to one under.

His compatriot Chris Williams had an equally bad start with a seven on the par-four first to also fall back among the pack.

Ryder Cup team-mates David Howell and Darren Clarke had disappointing mornings with the latter starting off with a bogey on the second and a double drop on the third before grabbing a birdie on the seventh to leave him two over for the tournament.

Howell was faring marginally better, shooting a 70 to leave him one under for the tournament.

South African Andrew McLardy had made an early move this morning to give him the clubhouse lead on six under at the halfway stage of the tournament.

The Randpark professional, whose best finish on the European tour was fifth in the 1999 Volvo Scandinavian Masters, posted a neat 69 in the early morning play as conditions changed from warm to overcast and made the narrow fairways even more difficult to play.

Zimbabwean-born McLardy, who turned 31 yesterday, had shared a four-way lead with fellow South Africans Tjaart van der Walt and Titch Moore and American Bruce Vaughan overnight.

Elsehwere there were moves for two young South Africans in Ross Wellington and Louis Oosthuizen, who moved up to five under and within striking distance of the leaders.

McLardy said: “I was pleased with my round because the course is playing really tough at the moment and we were a little lucky in the morning because the wind never really blows early.

“We got the first nine holes pretty calm before it started to pick up on the back nine.”