The leaders after round 1 were the early starters on day 2 of the KeNako SA World Juniors. There were some fairly dramatic changes at the top of the leaderboard. Overnight leader Sean Bradley struggled this morning and shot a 77 to fall back to level par for the tournament and tied 7th at the halfway stage of the day. Four players share the lead at 3 under par; Samuel Schiff of Switzerland; Cameron Davis of Australia; Ben Follet-Smith from Zimbabwe; and South African HP van der Merwe .
Schiff was 3 under for the day through 11 holes and 5 under par for the tournament before dropping shots at holes 12 and 15 to fall back to 3 under par. Follet-Smith played the tough front 9 in a day’s best 4 under par but then came back 1 over to finish with an excellent second day score of 69. Davis and van der Merwe, joint second overnight, scored matching rounds of 1 over par 73.
There are three players sharing 5th place a shot behind the leaders at 2 under par, including Robert Burlison of England, Jovan Rebula representing Serbia and Jade Buitendag from East London in South Africa.
In the Girl’s Division Lara Weinstein continued her domination of the event, despite shooting a 1 over par 73. Lara had an up and down round, with 3 birdies interspersed with 4 drops on the front 9 to turn 1 over par, a score that she maintained for the round. Cara Gorlei from South Africa moved up to second place with an even par round of 72, leaving her at a tournament total of 1 over par and 5 shots behind Lara. Czilla Lajtai Rózsa from Hungary, followed her first round 71 with a second round 75 to be 6 shots behind Lara Weinstein. Kaleigh Telfer of Bryanston CC in Johannesburg scored a day’s best 69 to move into a tie for 4th place with Ji Sun Kang from Korea at 4 over par. Kaleigh’s excellent round was marred by a double bogey 6 at the 13th hole, but scoring a 69 was still an excellent effort.
The wind has got up for the afternoon round so it seems unlikely that too many players will be able to move up the leaderboard. Those players who played yesterday morning and who are now playing in the afternoon have unfortunately experienced the toughest conditions on both days.