Van Wyk edges clear in IGT Wingate Park

Ruimsig amateur Keelan van Wyk fired a four-under-par 68 to leapfrog first-round leader Ruan Korb for pole position on day two of the Race to Q-School #3 on the IGT Challenge Tour.

The 20-year-old B.Com Business Administration final year student moved to 10-under 134 on Tuesday and will start the final round at Wingate Park Country Club one shot ahead of the Silver Lakes professional.

Andrew Carlsson carded 70 to maintain his overnight position, but the Bryanston golfer shares third on seven-under with Ruan Groenewald from Mpumalanga, who went around the championship layout in 68 strokes.

Van Wyk started with a run of straight pars before he picked up his first birdie.

“I hit every fairway and every green, but I just wasn’t making any putts,” he said. “At the par four, I hit another good drive and stuck a gap-wedge from 125 metres to eight foot.

“I gave it right back, though. The wind was swirling on the par three, and it came off the right and I thought I hit a good shot, but my ball didn’t come back enough. It ended up in the greenside bunker and couldn’t up-and-down for par.”

Level through the turn, his flat stick warmed up on the homeward stretch and Van Wyk racked up a quartet of birdies to go four-under.

“I was still solid off the tee on the back nine and gave myself chances on basically every hole. I birdied two in a row on 11 and 12 and had two more birdies on the last two par fives. It was pretty windy, so I made sure my tee shots finished in the fairway. I laid up to a comfortable distance and was able to convert from there for the birdies at the par fives.”

The young amateur expects a tough battle with Korb, a former IGT Challenge Tour winner who graduated to the 2019-20 Sunshine Tour via his top 10 finish in the Big Easy IGT Challenge Tour Road to Sunshine Tour last December.

Van Wyk has been in this position before and knows patience and course management will be key if he hopes to collect his first trophy on the country’s premier golf development circuit.

“I found something around the turn and I played the back nine a lot better than the first nine holes, so I hope I can keep it going in the final round,” Van Wyk said.

“It would be really great to bag that first win, but you can’t go chasing it. You have to stay focused on your own game and try to put together the best score you can, and try not to get hung up on what the opposition is doing. Ruan shot 70 today, but he can easily shoot 65 or less if the conditions are good, so I’m just going to keep my head down and try to stay in my own space.”