Luke Joy and Jordan Garnish shot matching 69s to move inside the top-10 going into the final round of the South to East Challenge, co-sanctioned with the Sunshine Big Easy Tour, at Ebotse Links in Benoni on Thursday.
The English duo, who are a long-time MENA Tour members, finished on one-under after 36-holes tied for eighth, six shots adrift of South Africa’s Herman Loubser, who took the early clubhouse lead, backing his opening 67 with a 70, as poor visibility forced suspension of play for second day running.
When play was called off for the day, joint overnight leader Breyten Meyer was on eight-under for the tournament with two holes to play, but he sounded confident, saying it won’t upset his solid play.
England golfer Luke Joy and attached to Yas Links in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
“It’s not great having to come back tomorrow morning. I’m swinging it nicely and I’m happy with how it went out there on Thursday. Tomorrow will be exciting so I’m looking forward to it,” said Meyer, the winner of the 2017-18 Sunshine Tour Q-School.
Loubser, who shared the overnight lead with fellow South African Meyer, mixed four birdies with two bogeys in his second round in cold and windy conditions, but it’s the mental toughness the 19-year- old prodigy showed on an icy Thursday, which was quite impressive.
“We were the first group off, so it was tough. We couldn’t feel our hands in the morning and just tried to grind it out,” he said about the conditions at Ebotse.
“I’ve not played a lot in conditions like this. I’ve usually stayed in bed if it was this cold. It reminded me a lot of back when I was younger and sort of just grinding out in this weather, just trying to make pars instead of birdies and it brought back a lot of memories,” he said, referring to the 14-year period of his life he spent living in the Isle of Man before returning to South African shores.
“I’ll see how it goes on Friday. I’m obviously in a good position and that’s all I could ask for. If I can play the golf I’ve been playing the first two days I’m sure I’ll have a chance,” said Loubser.
Elsewhere, Craig Hinton, the winner of the MENA Tour Order of Merit title in 2016, slipped well down the leaderboard after carding a second round 81 and so was the case with former English cricketer Craig Kieswetter who returned a second round 82 after opening with a 78.
