Home trio lead the field

South African trio Hennie Otto, James Kingston and Jakobus Roos ensured local dominance on the leaderboard after the second round of the Joburg Open.

They were all 11 under after playing both the par-72 West and par-71 East course, with the tournament reverting to the championship East course Saturday.

Australian Terry Pilkadaris, whose six-under-par total took him to 10 under, is fourth while Argentinian Ariel Canete is level at nine under with two more South Africans, Dean Lambert and Louis Oosthuizen.

Roos posted the best round of the day on the West course, taking a seven-under-par 65.

The temperamental Otto went round the course in five under.

Kingston was unhappy with his start, but more than overjoyed with the way he came alive at the end six under par for the day.

On the second hole he hit a five iron to 15 feet and two-putted for the birdie on the par five. At the ninth, his three iron into the green left him with a 30-foot putt, which he sank easily.

A birdie on 17 and eight iron in from 167 feet on the 18th gave him an eagle opportunity from eight feet out, which he took comfortably.

Kingston could not truly explain his relaxed approach and said: “I’m probably still in Mozambique on holiday at the moment.

“I enjoy the golf courses and I was very surprised yesterday as I hadn’t played a lot of golf coming into this week and to start on the tougher of the two courses.

“I mentally prepared myself just to get something around par, making anything under par would be nice but to play the way I did yesterday and shoot a round of five under is quite pleasing.

“This morning I was getting a bit frustrated because you saw the scores from yesterday, where everybody shot the lights out of the course. To go out there and not get anything going and get one under after eight holes is a bit frustrating.

“I then got an eagle on nine and nothing seemed to happen on the back nine again. Then all of a sudden Sven (Struver) got on a run and I finished birdie, eagle which suddenly turned it into a good round.”

South Africa’s Charl Schwartzel, the top-ranked player of the tournament, narrowly missed the three-under cut when he rattled up five birdies on the back nine to shoot a 68 and finish six under for the tournament.

Earlier Frenchman Raphael Eyraud scored the first hole in one of the tournament on the fifth hole, teeing off with a five iron to register the ace.