Ken Borland

The Nedbank Golf Challenge enters its third round at the Gary Player Country Club on Saturday and, thus far, the scoring has not set the world alight.

In fact, it is Bernhard Langer, the 55-year-old leader of the Champions Challenge who has been the most impressive golfer thus far. The German’s nine-under-par tally after two rounds has given him a four-shot lead over Jay Haas in the concurrent tournament for senior golfers, but Langer is five shots better off than the NGC leader, Scotsman Paul Lawrie.

The secret to Langer’s success has been clear-thinking, wise strategy and successful execution that has seen him generally avoid the brutal rough which often waits just a couple of metres off the fairway.

Lawrie has followed a similar, conservative strategy and has recorded just two bogeys, one on each day, in 36 holes thus far.

“Experience has a lot to do with it, probably nobody has played this course as much as me – it’s my 16^th tournament here. I played well, just hitting fairways and greens, but it’s important to hit the ball in the right spot here,” Langer said.

While Langer, Haas and defending seniors champion Mark Calcavecchia have all enjoyed sub-par rounds on both days, the NGC regular pros have generally struggled, with no one really conquering the Gary Player Country Club.

The result has been a bunched leaderboard with first round leaders Bill Haas, the son of Jay, and Nicolas Colsaerts slipping back down the field on Friday.

Haas admitted he was surprised that it was the seniors who were playing the better golf on the same course at the same time, their only allowance being that their tees have been moved forward.

“I’m surprised the big names are not doing better. We’re probably driving the ball where they’re driving it, then they probably take one club less from there. But the thing about Bernhard is that he does not make many mental errors, he doesn’t give strokes away.

“Having forward tees is definitely an advantage on a couple of holes and nobody in our tournament gets close to the distance of those 12 golfers in the main event. But the situation is a little unusual right now,” Haas said.

But Langer, typically, is not allowing himself to get carried away, even though the Champions Challenge enters its final round on Saturday.

“Four strokes sounds like a lot, but there is still a lot of golf to be played and this course can grab you anywhere, every hole can get you, so I still have to play a solid final round of golf. If I keep swinging and rolling the ball the way I did today, then I should be okay,” Langer said.

The two-time Masters champion has certainly given a masterclass at Sun City, one that the regular pros have not been able to match. While Langer has shot 68-67, the best rounds in the NGC have been Friday’s 69s shot by Lawrie and Martin Kaymer.

Paul Lawrie emerged as the midway leader of the Nedbank Golf Challenge on Friday after another day of tough scoring at the Gary Player Country Club.

Lawrie shot a three-under-par 69 in the second round to move to four-under overall, a one-stroke lead over Germany’s Martin Kaymer, who matched the Scotsman’s 69 – the best two rounds of the day.

South Africans Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen are two strokes further back, in a tie for third on one-under-par with Italy’s Francesco Molinari and American Bill Haas.

But on a day in which the golfers continued to be agitated by a swirling wind and thick semi-rough, it was the consistent if conservative play of Lawrie and Kaymer that brought the greatest reward.

Lawrie played beautifully in the tough conditions, his only dropped shot coming on the par-four 15^th, and the 43-year-old was understandably content with his position midway through the $5 million tournament.

“I played nicely again. I struggled with the driver so I hit quite a few three-woods, which was a strong club for me today. I gave myself chances and I putted a lot better today.

“This course is demanding off the tee and you’ve got to be in play if you hope to go for the pins. It’s important to drive well, it’s pretty tough out there. The wind is swirling, chopping and changing, and it’s difficult to get your distance right,” Lawrie said.

But with no one being able to conquer Sun City’s famed course, the leaderboard is bunched and Kaymer said the weekend shootout was an appetizing prospect.

“There are eight golfers within five shots, so that’s quite nice. If you play good and a few putts drop, then you can shoot five or six-under, so nobody can relax,” Kaymer said.

Schwartzel struggled to find his best game but kept himself in contention by shooting a 71 that left him on one-under-par.

Oosthuizen joined him half-an-hour later with a birdie on the 18^th hole, while Haas needed an inward nine of just 33 shots to also finish in the tie for third.

Haas was the joint overnight leader with fellow NGC rookie Nicolas Colsaerts, but they both discovered just why a debutant has not won at Sun City since Mark McNulty in 1986.

Colsaerts, who shot a 70 on the first day, made a disastrous start to Friday’s second round with a double-bogey seven on the second hole and a triple-bogey at the par-four third hole, while Haas double-bogeyed the first and dropped further shots at the seventh and ninth holes, before fighting back well.

The long-hitting Belgian finished with a 78 and a tie for 10^th on four-over-par, eight shots off the pace.

Two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer on Thursday made an impassioned defence of long putters, saying they were part of the “progression of the game”.

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club (R&A) and the United States Golf Association (USGA), the sport’s two leading rulemakers, on Wednesday announced a proposal for a ban on long putters being anchored to the body.

Langer, who suffered from career-threatening putting “yips” in the late 1980s and reverted to a belly putter in 1997, said he was opposed to the decision which could ban the practice of long putters being anchored to the player’s chest, stomach or chin by 2016.

“I am disappointed and I do not understand why they are banning it now after 35 years. If there is anything illegal about it, why did they not stop it right away?

“If you are talking about the history of the game and that long putters are not part of the history of the game, what about big metal drivers, two-piece balls or hybrids? Let’s face it, it is a progression of the game,” Langer said at Sun City on Thursday, where he was leading the Champions Challenge, the seniors’ portion of the Nedbank Golf Challenge.

Bill Haas, the American who is the co-leader of the Nedbank Golf Challenge after the first round, has used a belly-putter in the past and he believes the rule disallowing anchoring is fair.

“I had a lot of success with a belly putter last year, but then I became worse with it for a while. I don’t think it makes putting much easier, but it may be the wrong way to play the game. You should be putting with your hands and the putter should not be anchored. There’s a way to putt, but if people want to use a long putter, they should use them. I’m happy with my short putter now, it makes it more fun,” Haas said.

Langer pointed out that, although three of the last five major champions have used long putters, the game’s rulemakers have done nothing to halt the influence of technology in other areas, particularly drivers.

“They have never banned drivers, that is what they should be doing. Are these big metal drivers part of the history of the game, balls going for hundreds of yards?”, the former world number one said.

The rulemakers are apparently concerned that it is not just older golfers turning to the longer putters as a last resort to cure the yips, but younger players who are now taking advantage of the anchoring method. Fourteen-year-old Chinese golfer Guan Tianlang used a belly putter in his recent victory at the Asia Pacific Amateur and earned himself a place at next year’s Masters in the process.

Sweden’s Carl Pettersson uses a broomstick putter and is also in the Sun City field, but he declined to attend a press conference when it became clear he was going to be asked about the proposed new ruling.

Haas said despite the threatened outlawing of the practice, he did not see it as cheating and, apart from Pettersson, he mentioned a duo of recent major winners in Keegan Bradley and Webb Simpson who use the long putter.

“I’ve heard Webb talking and he says that stats show that the top putters don’t use belly putters,” Haas said.

The proposal will undoubtedly give birth to heated debate over the next couple of years, with the rules only being changed after a long period of consultation.