South Africans continued their stranglehold over the Barclays Kenya Open as Jacques Blaauw and Danie Van Tonder climbed to the top of the halfway leaderboard at Nairobi’s Karen Country Club, one year after Haydn Porteous’ breakthrough victory in this event.
The European Challenge Tour’s season-opener has often proven to be a happy hunting ground for South Africans, with three of the last five winners hailing from the Rainbow Nation.
Van Tonder shared the first round lead but slipped back into a tie for second place with Sebastian Soderberg on nine under par as they were overtaken by Blaauw, whose six under par round of 66 put him one shot clear.
“I’m obviously very happy with this morning’s play,” said the 30 year old. “I had some lucky breaks out there and made some good putts, so I’m quite happy with a 66.
“Making eagle early in the round is always nice. I chipped in on the 15thwhich was quite fun – it hit the hole right in the middle and just dropped, so that was great.
“My target this week is fairly simple: to get a top ten to get into the next tournament. Or even a win, that would be even nicer. This tournament has been pretty fortunate for South African golfers so I’ll try to keep the trend going.
“Haydn has done very well since last year, winning on The European Tour and showing it can be done. I wasn’t actually too far behind him at the Joburg Open in the end.
“That’s what we strive for, to get on The European Tour, so Challenge Tour is my focus this year to try to achieve that aim.
“This is my first time here and I didn’t really expect a golf course as good as this but it suits South Africans I suppose because it’s quite similar, so maybe that’s why we’ve been doing pretty well out here.”
Van Tonder, who turned 25 last Saturday, was in a relaxed mood on arrival in Nairobi and has found the combination of his powerful driving and fine short game to be well suited to Kenyan conditions.
“I think I used driver 14 times,” he said. “There’s nothing too tricky about the course, I think I used an iron (off the tee) maybe once, but otherwise it’s a simple tactic of driver and a wedge.
“I was in the bush a few times and got a few scars for my troubles, so it was quite entertaining out there – I had some thorn trouble on the first.
“I missed the greens in a few wrong places but I’m chipping quite well and here you definitely have a chance of chipping them in, which I did a couple of times this week, including on 18 today which was fun.”
Sweden’s Soderberg followed an opening 67 with a four under par 68, with German Bernd Ritthammer, Adrien Saddier of France and England’s Sam Walker one shot further back on eight under par.
For Kenyans, the presence of Dismas Indiza Anyonyi inside the top ten offered much to cheer, the 47 year old veteran of 16 previous Kenyan Opens using his experience and local knowledge to go into the third round on five under par.
Two of his compatriots, Simon Ngige and Brian Njoroge, also made the cut, which fell at level par, with 74 professionals and one amateur – Frenchman Romain Langasque, three weeks before he tees it up at the Masters Championship – making it through to the weekend.
