Strong finish gives Sandys lead

A strong finish gave South African Omar Sandys the outright lead at the end of day two at the Alfred Dunhill Championship in Malelane.

The 30-year-old Free Stater was one under par through nine holes, but managed two birdies in his last four holes to match his opening round 68 and move to eight under par for the tournament, two ahead of the field.

His biggest challenge came from Englishman Lee Slattery, who carded the best round of the day with a 65 and an overall total of 138 for six under par.

Home favourite Ernie Els leads a group of six players on five under, including Britons Richard Bland, John Bickerton, Craig Lee and overnight leader Sion Bebb as well as South African Titch Moore, who shot a 68.

Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke bounced back from his difficult opening round to shoot a solid three-under-par 69 and move to two under for the competition.

Ross Fisher, currently second on the European Order of Merit, managed to fight back from his poor 76 on the opening day by shooting a 70.

The only big name to miss out on the weekend action was 2004 winner Charl Schwartzel after a four-over-par 43 added to his 75 from Thursday.

But it was the rather jovial Sandys who claimed the honour of topping the leaderboard after two days at the Leopard Creek Country Club.

Coming from a rather humble background that has seen him struggle with endorsements and sponsorships for large parts of his professional career, he admitted that believing in his ability was crucial to his position at the end of the day.

He said: “It feels good to be here you know. It’s all about guts and just trusting yourself.”

So good was his performance, that Sandys could have had an even better score with an eagle chance coming on the 18th after a brave approach to the green.

He said: “Everyone wanted me to make that putt. On my side, I just wanted to two-putt.

“Not because of the scores that were following me or where I’m lying on the leaderboard, but for my round, I was planning and I’ve always been planning to shoot four good rounds in a row.

“And 68 is my handicap at home. So I’m actually happy to shoot it at Leopard Creek twice.”

The day also marked a remarkable turnaround for Slattery, who lost his European Tour card in October by less than £50, before being forced to go back to tour school to regain it.

“I got off to a really slow start at the beginning of last year,” he said.

“And then started to play well towards the end of the year and by then, I’m not saying it was too late, just you sort of put a lot of pressure on yourself, but last year it just didn’t work out for me.

“So to bounce back at tour school like I did was obviously a big achievement.”

The 29-year-old from Southport believes he could have done even better than his seven-under-par round of 65.

“I’ll be honest with you, I left a few chances out there today as well, but it was probably the best I hit the ball for a long time. It was great.”

As for the course itself, he added: “It’s a course I’ve played a lot, you know, and I do know it very well. It’s a great golf course, I think, it’s very sort of risk and reward, there’s a lot of shots you can take on and then you can start to shoot numbers.

“It was very tricky in the wind yesterday, but today was just a little bit calmer and you can go for a few more shots.”