Defending champ Schwartzel misses cut
Posted on
January 14, 2012 by
Ken
Defending and Masters champion Charl Schwartzel missed the cut in the Joburg Open at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club on Saturday as Englishmen Robert Rock and Richard Finch and South African George Coetzee shared the lead after two rounds of the European and Sunshine Tour co-sanctioned event.
Rock, Finch and Coetzee were on 11-under-par after the second round was completed on Saturday morning after thunderstorms washed out play on both the first and second afternoons, nine hours of play being lost.
The cut was made on 65th and ties and fell on four-under-par.
Schwartzel missed the cut by one stroke as he fired rounds of 72 and 68 to finish on three-under-par in the tournament played on two courses – the par-72 East Course and par-71 West Course.
“It’s always guesswork when you come off a break and competitive golf is always different. But to get straight on to the point, my putting let me down. You’re not going to be doing very well on a course where you should be going for birdies if you have 34 putts. I hit 17 greens in regulation but I was just three-under, so it was not my best effort,” Schwartzel said after his second round.
“I’m not stroking the ball properly and I don’t have that rhythm you get from playing tournament golf week in, week out. If you hit a few off-line, you start doubting yourself, which makes it worse,” Schwartzel told reporters.
Rock claimed the lead as he shot a four-under-par 67 on the easier West Course, after he had produced the joint best round of the first day on the East Course – a seven-under-par 65.
But Finch and Coetzee caught Rock on Saturday morning as they walked off the course with 66 and 67 respectively on the East Course.
Coetzee fired six birdies, but his hopes of leading on his own were spoilt by a bogey on the par-four 17th.
“I’m not happy about that bogey at the end. I was playing well and when I made that par on 16, I thought I could push for a couple more birdies. As soon as you say that, the bogey happens,” Coetzee said.
Finch joined the leaders thanks to his third professional hole-in-one, as he aced the par-three 12th hole with a six-iron from 188 metres.
“It was actually my second in South Africa, I made one at Humewood a few years ago during the SA Open. I made the other one at the Johnnie Walker at Gleneagles,” Finch said.