David Drysdale is again banging loudly on a first Tour victory door after soaring with two eagles to be sharing second place heading to the closing two rounds of the Kenya Savannah Classic in Nairobi.
Drysdale also grabbed four birdies in a second straight six-under par 65 for a 12-under par tally to be trailing just one shot behind South African Daniel Von Tonner and with the 30-year snatching three eagles in his 64 to lead at 13-under par.
The proud Scott shares second with Justin Harding (66), and winner of last week’s Kenya Open who is now 33-under par for his past six rounds on the same Karen Country Club course.
Drysdale had lost out in capturing a first Tour win a year ago in losing a play-off at the Qatar Masters and now in a 519th Tour event the Borders golfer is back in contention.
David Drysdale with wife and caddy, Vicky getting a well done kiss
With wife and caddy, Vicky still calling the shots, Dyrsdale capped his round chipping in from 12-foot for an eagle ‘3’ at the par-5 sixth hole and then at the par-5 11th, he watched in delight as his 5-iron second shot landed some 15-feet of the flag from where he grabbed a second eagle.
He said: “I was left with a nice back-foot chip shot on six that went straight into the middle of the cup, which was nice.
“Then on 11 my second shot went up over a tier on the green, leaving me a nice left-to-right putt and with a perfect pace, it went right in the middle”.
The Eyemouth-attached golfer also had four birdies with just two bogeys in his lowest opening 36-hole tally since being 13-under par after two days of the 2009 Madrid Masters.
And a decision to change the head of his Callaway driver, and after missing the cut on the same course less than a week ago, proved a proper move.
He said: “I didn’t drive it straight enough last week so I changed the head of my driver from last week.
“I increased the loft by a degree so as to try and hit it higher and keep some more spin on it at altitude but it just backfired on me as I hit too many shots left.
“When you come to this sort of altitude, I just feel you need a little bit more launch to keep the ball in the air but obviously it didn’t work out well.
“The thing is I’ve played a lot of golf in Africa in the last number of years and I’ve had good results here. In Joburg, Leopard Creek – places like that that are high up.
“So, the more loft you have in your hand the easier it is to hit it left so that was a mistake in my judgement.
“But I’ve gone back to one I’ve used for most of the season this week and it’s going quite well so far.”
Liam Johnston (69) and Calum Hill (68) sharing 25th place at seven-under are the next best of the Scots.
