Scotsman Steven O’Hara held a one-stroke lead in the South African Open on Friday with a -bogey-free four-under-par second round of 68.
O’Hara, joint overnight leader in the 1 million euro (US$1.23 million) championship, is on 11-under-par with South Africa’s double former champion Retief Goosen sharing second place with Merrick Bremner at the Serengeti Golf and Wildlife Estate.
The Scot shot one birdie in the first nine and then in the 11th, 16th and 17th holes.
Goosen ended the day with a 68 with five birdies placing him within striking distance of top spot on the leaderboard.
Bremner shot birdies on the 14th, 15th and 18th to share second spot also with 68.
Jbe Kruger, who shared the lead on Thursday, closed day two in shared fourth position with a 71, and defending champion Ernie Els carded a second 69.
Last year’s edition went down to the wire between Els and Goosen, with Els holding off a four-birdie Goosen come-back on the last five to win by a single stroke at the Durban Country Club.
It was the Johannesburg native’s fifth victory in the tournament.
Morning leader Lyle Rowe, who carded 66, ended the day in joint third with Garth Mulroy.
The contest, the second-oldest national championship after the Open, turns 101 this year.
Notably absent from the tournament are locals and Major winners Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel, who are at the Omega Mission Hills World Cup in China.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but