The Scottish trio of Scott Jamieson, Richie Ramsay and Bob MacIntyre continue to struggle heading into the weekend rounds of the Nedbank Challenge to be staring at ending their season in far off South Africa.

Jamieson could only muster a second round of 71 to be just inside the top-30 at level par in heatwave conditions on the Sun City layout.

Jamieson is also projected to drop three places and to 68^th on the bigger Race to Dubai picture, and with just the leading 50 to tee-up in next week’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

Ramsay is also projected to fall four places to 62^nd after Nedbank scores of 72 and 78 for a six-over tally and a lowly share of 58^th place in the 63-player field.

After 36 holes in Sun City 📊 #NGC2019 #RolexSeries

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) November 15, 2019

And MacIntyre’s goal of securing not only a first Tour victory but also landing the prestigious ‘Rookie of the Year’ title has taken another set-back with Sun City scores of 73 and 76, and only a shot fewer than Ramsay.

The Oban lefty is projected to drop to 14^th on the Race to Dubai and further behind ‘Rookie’ rival Victor Perez.

South African Zander Lombard, who was the very last into the Nedbank field, grabbed his opportunity with both hands posting a second round 65 and muscle his way to a two-shot lead at 11-under par, and projected to now jump to 13^th on the Race to Dubai.

It was only due to the fact 14 players ahead of Lombard on the Race to Dubai chose not to go to South Africa that Lombard is in the field.

The 24-year old, who is yet to win on the European Tour, began his day with a bogey but then proceed to collect a 10^th hole eagle and six birdies and head to the weekend two clear of Louis Oosthuizen (72).

“The round is definitely up there as one of my best rounds in golf and while the nerves were apparent with that bogey at the first, I settled-in quite quickly so very, very happy with my score,” he said.

In the 97 European Tour events Lombard has contested he’s collected Euro 1.22m in prizemoney while he’s now staring at looking at more than doubling that amount should he win to pocket the Euro 2.26 first prize cheque.

“You try not to think about the prizemoney and all I am going to do, is to continue to focus on what I’m doing as everything seems to be working well out there,” he said.

Finland’s Kalle Samooja sensationally started his second round by holing his 4-iron second shot for an albatross ‘2’ at the par-5 10^th hole.

The Finn, who signed off for a 71 and a one-under 36-hole tally, was later presented with a special commemorative bottle of Ernie Els labelled wine and leaving Tour officials guessing when was the last occasion a player began a round with the rarest of rare golfing birds.