Leader Clark makes solid start

South African Tim Clark moved himself into position to reclaim the SAA Open title here at the Royal Durban Country Club today, taking a two-shot lead over the rest of the field as the tournament drew to a close.

Clark fired two more birdies on the front nine to move ahead of his compatriots while Ryder Cup star David Howell was looking for a strong back nine to lay a firm challenge for the title.

Clark, who grew up on the course and won the title in 2002 when it was last held at this venue, posted a bogey-free front nine and will take some beating this afternoon.

But Howell, who warned yesterday that he was “going to give it a go” is two behind and has every opportunity to take the tournament to the South African this afternoon.

Overnight leader Titch Moore was also hanging in on nine under, while the two other South Africans at the top of the leaderboard overnight struggled in early play.

Tjaart van der Walt was one further back alongside South African James Kingston while England’s Nick Dougherty stormed back with a 66 to be on eight under as well.

Hendrik Buhrmann dropped off the lead early with three bogeys in the first five holes and looks out of contention for the title, as has English chaser Graeme Storm, who also fell back to seven under and Neil Cheetham, who is on five under.

Ireland’s Darren Clarke was also on song, although unlikely to make an impact on the title, as he negotiated the front nine four under and was seven under for the tournament with three holes still to play.

Dougherty, though, posted what may become the best round of the day as he whizzed around the course in six-under 66 and finally had some pay-off for the work he has done on his swing in the off-season.

“It’s been great to shoot a round like that,” he said.

“But it is a pity that it is a bit too little too late. I had a good weekend and the weather has been great, so it’s nice to know that my work has paid off a bit.”

Dougherty has worked with golfing guru David Leadbetter and sees the new approach as one of the reasons why he finished so strongly in Durban.

“We worked on a whole new composition of my swing. From scratch we changed it and I’ve worked hard, so it’s nice to have it working well over here.”

With the English players in particular making their move in the last two days, Dougherty believes perhaps a bit more practice on the Royal Durban Country Club would have helped their challenge a lot more.

“To be honest, I struggled to read the greens at the start of the week and the weather has been a lot better in the last two days. Perhaps with a bit more practice on these greens, we could have done a bit better. But that’s okay, I’m still happy.”