Ken Borland

Right now, no matter how much medical expertise or finance they throw at the injury, it’s not working when it comes to Dean Elgar’s adductor tear and the opening batsman will once again be missing when the Northerns Titans host the KZN Dolphins at SuperSport Park from Friday in the second round of the domestic four-day competition.

Elgar, who has not played since the T20 tournament at the end of September, told The Citizen on Thursday that he is hopeful of being fit for the third round of fixtures which start on November 18. But that will leave the Test captain with just two matches before the first Test against India starts on December 17.

His absence is a continued blow for a Titans side that mounted a fine comeback in their opening match against the Eastern Province Warriors, but simply did not have enough top-order runs in either innings.

It is a problem not shared by KZN, who piled on the runs last weekend at Newlands thanks to an unbeaten double century by Khaya Zondo and a hundred by Jason Smith, while there were also useful contributions from Keegan Petersen and Bryce Parsons. Sarel Erwee and Marques Ackerman missed out last weekend, but they are both quality batsmen.

The Dolphins will be without new-ball bowler Ottneil Baartman, but in-form paceman Daryn Dupavillon is still there and Eathan Bosch is also in their squad. It all adds up to Northerns having to work as hard and as collectively as ants if they are to not lose a second straight home game.

The Central Gauteng Lions know how much assistance their Wanderers home pitch loans them, which they used to great effect in beating North-West last weekend by an innings, but now they have to travel down to St George’s Park to take on Eastern Province Warriors.

Both Lutho Sipamla and Sisanda Magala return to their place of birth in Port Elizabeth, while the Warriors will unleash the exciting pace trio of Glenton Stuurman, Mthiwekhaya Nabe and Marco Jansen in an exciting battle of attacks.

The two teams were the only outright winners from the first weekend of fixtures, so should one of them gain victory again this weekend, it will give them a useful head-start.

Lions coach Wandile Gwavu is optimistic his team will adapt well given their previous record in Gqeberha.

“It’s always been really good games against the Warriors. We have managed to get a positive result at St George’s in 2018 and last season.

“So we are definitely going there with a bit of confidence behind our backs and looking forward to it,” Gwavu said.

The other games starting on Friday are the big Western Cape derby between Boland and Western Province in Paarl, and North-West host the Free State Knights in Potchefstroom.

GQEBERHA, Eastern Cape – Malcolm Mitchell dared to take Driver on a dozen holes on Friday in the second round of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series at Humewood Golf Club and quickly reaped the rewards as he raced up the leaderboard with a five-under-par 67 lifting him into a share of the lead heading into Saturday’s final round.

The wind was still up on Friday but Mitchell dropped just one stroke on his way to a total of four-under-par after the first two rounds, tied with 27-year-old Richard Joubert and veteran Hennie Otto.

Collecting six birdies, three on each loop, suggests an aggressive approach by the former Eisenhower Cup representative, but apart from backing himself with Driver, Mitchell felt his strategy was pretty risk-free.

“The two parts of my game that have been good for a while have been my driving and putting, which really helps on a links course. There were only two holes where I did not take Driver, but I’ve only missed four or five fairways on the first two days, so I’ve pretty much always been in a good position and my putting has been very good over the last while.

“In terms of being aggressive, in the moment there might be one shot that I might feel I can have a go at, but then there are others where I’ll aim 20 feet right or short. So I don’t go at it too much, I don’t change game-plans and I just try to stay in the moment and enjoy it,” Mitchell said after his round.

And being focused on the present and having fun is exactly what Mitchell will be doing in the final round, having learnt some lessons from his runners-up finish in August in the SunBet Challenge at Wingate Park Country Club in Pretoria. In that tournament he also went low in the second round, a 65 lifting him to second, but then he closed with a 72 to leave him three adrift of Estiaan Conradie.

“It’s funny how life teaches you different things. You work so hard to stay in the present but then sometimes you mess it up and get ahead of yourself or start thinking of the past. But winning three times in 2019 always sits there. Those memories are there to go back on, they can only help. It means I’ve been there, even though it was the Big Easy Tour, and knowing how to win definitely sticks in the back of your mind,” Mitchell said.

One man who is unlikely to have any trembling knees if he stays in contention on Saturday is Otto, because he has done it all before with 13 wins on the Sunshine Tour, the most recent being at the Sibaya Challenge in October 2019. The 45-year-old also finished in a tie for second in the Vodacom Origins of Golf event at Sishen at the end of August.

Otto has had a run of four successive top-30 finishes on tour and the former SA Open champion was looking dangerous as he fired a four-under-par 68 on Friday.

Joubert was just one stroke off the lead after the first round and, starting on the 10^th, he soared into the lead with an eagle on the par-five 11^th and then holed out for an eagle-two at the par-four 16^th. Bogeys at 17 and 18 undid some of that amazing work though, and he dropped two more shots on the front nine, but finishing with three straight pars gave him a 71 and he is far from done-and-dusted in this race.

Overnight leader Tristen Strydom shot a 73 on Friday and is one stroke back on three-under for the tournament, alongside Michael Palmer (68) and Daniel Greene (69).

There are three golfers two shots back on two-under-par who will need to be watched carefully as well – Christiaan Basson (68), Jean Hugo, who fired a brilliant 66, and Jayden Schaper (69).

When Danie van Tonder’s 40-foot eagle putt fell on his last hole of the second round of the Vodacom Championship Reloaded at Huddle Park Golf Club on Thursday, it catapulted him from a narrow one-shot lead heading into the final round of the last Rise Up Series event into a sizeable three-shot advantage.

Finishing on the par-five ninth hole, it was a magnificent way to end a round which up till then had been more solid than spectacular. On a cooler day which meant Van Tonder could not bomb the ball quite as far, the hottest golfer in South Africa was four-under-par for his round, enough when combined with his superb 63 on the first day to take him to 13-under overall, one shot ahead of Jacques Blaauw.

But the eagle saw him finish with a six-under-par 66, taking him out to 15-under for the tournament. Even for a man who operates as clinically as Van Tonder, it was a spectacular strike at just the right time.

“I hit a good drive and I had 175 to the pin, so I hit an eight-iron as hard as I can and it finished pin-high, but I was left with a 40-foot snake of a putt. I didn’t really think about my lead, tomorrow [Friday] will just be another round in which I try and shoot less than 70. If I hit fairways and make putts for 18 holes then it will be like matchplay and with pars and birdies it will be hard to beat me.

“I just need to play the golf course and try to birdie everything I can. It’s easy, just grip it and hit it and trust yourself. I played well today [Thursday] but missed a couple of birdies. But at least I gave myself chances so I am still happy, the ones I missed just rolled over the lips of the holes and I knew sooner or later I would make one. I was never really getting into trouble,” Van Tonder said after his round.

Blaauw was able to hop up the leaderboard with an impressive five-under-par 67 and led for much of the day on 12-under before Van Tonder overtook him late in the day. An excellent round with the putter meant the four-time Sunshine Tour winner was confident he could secure his first trophy since winning the Sishen Vodacom Origins event four years ago.

“I’m working hard for the win and I can’t really point the finger at something in particular that is stopping me. But rolling in some putts today made a difference, I’m hitting the ball good and my caddy is reading the greens well, he just tells me where to hit it. So I’m confident and I just need to stick to what I know best. There’s a lot that could still happen,” Blaauw told The Citizen.

Promising rookie Malcolm Mitchell and veteran Adilson da Silva, who fired a brilliant bogey-free 64 on Thursday, are on 11-under and also have the potential to challenge Van Tonder as he goes for his third Rise Up Series title.

Anton Haig shot the round of the day in the second round with a 63, that included two eagles, to go to 10-under, giving himself a chance of his first professional win  since 2013, along with Jaco Ahlers, who is clearly in good touch after back-to-back 67s, and Louis de Jager, who slipped back a bit with a 70 on Thursday.

Talented youngsters Clayton Mansfield (67), Gideon van der Vyver (64) and Ruan Korb (66) are also on 10-under.

George Coetzee is not the only man who considers Pretoria Country Club to be his own stamping ground as Tristen Strydom showed on Thursday in shooting a brilliant seven-under-par 65 to join the first-round leader at the top of the leaderboard after the second round of the Titleist Championship.

Coetzee has won two Tshwane Opens at the Waterkloof course and enjoyed plenty of junior success here, but Thursday was a struggle for him as he posted a 70 to move to seven-under for the tournament heading into Friday’s final round.

But while the 34-year-old’s record at Pretoria Country Club is well-known, Strydom showed his own liking for the parklands course with a phenomenal round that included eight birdies and an eagle. The next best round was a 67 by Louis Albertse that saw him make the cut.

The 23-year-old Strydom is in just his second season on the Sunshine Tour and has won less than R60 000 in 19 events.

“Man I am just absolutely loving it! To be playing on my home course, and to be feeling really confident, obviously helps a lot. I actually live on the course and all the members are really helping me and want me to play well. Glendower and Killarney are like this as well, all tough courses, but I just didn’t feel as comfortable on them. My goal was to just be in contention, so now I will just try and do the same thing in the final round.

“I putted really nicely and a lot more putts went in today. The momentum got rolling really nicely and then the eagle on nine took me to six-under. I know where not to hit it on this course and I was really good off the tee. The most important thing in the final round is just to have fun and it’s all good vibes out there, we are all just so happy we got the opportunity to be playing again,” Strydom said after his best ever round on the Sunshine Tour.

Strydom took advantage of going off at 7.45am in the fourth threeball, but as the weather cleared and the temperature increased significantly, so the greens speeded up and became particularly tough to hold. Coetzee, a fine iron player, said it was heavy going.

“It was all a bit scruffy, I didn’t hit the ball as well as in the first round and my game was just not all there, I was just not on it today. The pins were tricky, a lot of them were crazy, and the greens are fast so you end up going for the middle of the green at best. You have to play away from the pins and if you don’t focus, big numbers come into play. We were all putting 30 feet for birdie instead of from five feet.

“So I hit a lot of greens but I just tried to make no mistakes, I was maybe a bit too conservative. But a bogey on the first hole made me. In the end I’m actually quite happy to shoot something under-par,” Coetzee said.

Hennie O’Kennedy, the rookie who shared the overnight lead with Coetzee, had an even tougher day and notched up one of those big numbers with a nine on the par-five fourth, on his way to an 83 that saw him miss the cut by two strokes.

Another rookie, Clayton Mansfield of Durban Country Club, has played particularly well with rounds of 68 and 72 to lie in third place, three behind the leaders. Former SA Boys champion Pieter Moolman, of Benoni Lakes, shot an excellent 68 on Thursday to move into fourth on three-under-par, while the exciting young Jayden Schaper and nine-time Sunshine Tour winner Jaco Ahlers are on two-under-par.