Rookie Mitchell’s 67 takes him top of Humewood leaderboard

Sunshine Tour rookie Malcolm Mitchell produced one of the rounds of the day on Friday at Humewood Golf Club with his five-under-par 67 taking him into a share of the lead after the second round of the Vodacom Origins of Golf event there.

After he opened with a one-over 73, he came roaring back to be in a one-stroke lead together with Richard Joubert and veteran Hennie Otto. At four-under, they held a one-stroke lead over Michael Palmer, Daniel Greene and first-round leader Tristen Strydom.

“The wind was there all the time, but not nearly as bad as it was yesterday,” said Mitchell of a day which was not as windy as the first, but saw rain coming later to make things tough.

He started his round on the 10th, and he got his scorecard into credit almost immediately with a birdie on the 11th. But he dropped his only shot of the day on the 13th.

Mitchell got over the bogey very quickly, and made three consecutive birdies from the 15th to the 17th to turn in three-under 34.

He kept his scorecard clean on the way home, picking up birdies on one and seven.

“That three-birdie run was pretty useful,” said Mitchell. “The wind was off the right down the 15th, and from behind on the left on 17, and that helped the tee shots in both cases. It helped that my driver has been solid all week so far, keeping me in the fairway most of the time.

“And, while I’ve been putting well, I haven’t made any spectacular putts, but that’s probably a good thing because I’m getting the ball quite close to the hole a lot of the time. And that bogey came from a three-putt, so I want to be cutting those out,” he added.

Mitchell, who is leading the Rookie of the Year rankings on the Sunshine Tour, has a best finish of second, which he achieved at the SunBet Challenge Time Square in August, and he will want to convert this start into a maiden win.

“It will be all about staying in the moment in the final round,” he said. “I just want to go out there and savour everything that comes my way. There’ll be no changing of gameplan, or anything dramatic.”

He’ll have plenty to occupy him with the players closest to him on the leaderboard, and, one shot further back on two under, lurks Jean Hugo, who had the round of the day on Friday with a superb six-under 66.

© satourgolf