South Africa's Andrew McLardy apart, the first page of the leaderboard in the e1,1-million (about R14,5-million) Joburg Open last night had a distinctly unfamiliar look about it.
Scotland's little-known David Drysdale leads on 11-under-par 131, following a 66 on the west course. Northern Ireland's Michael Hoey, who won the 2001 British Amateur but - like Drysdale - is a journeyman and has been yo-yoing between the European Tour and the second tier Challenge Tour, lies second on 132 alongside South Africa's Oliver Bekker who has only been a professional for just over a year. The Bolander, though, distinguished himself with a splendid 65 yesterday - also on the west course- on a day in which lightning held up play for nearly two hours, making for a late finish.
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McLardy, after a 68, is lying two off the pace alongside England's 21-year-old Danny Willett - a name never seen on a leaderboard in South Africa although before joining the paid ranks he was ranked the No 1 amateur in the world.
Tyrone van Aswegan, England's Richard McEvoy (both after shooting rounds of 65 yesterday) and Spain's Rafael Cabrera Bello are bracketed on eight-under 134.
The two big drawcards in this tournament, Richard Sterne and Retief Goosen, are on 137 and 138 respectively - by any means not out of it, but they'll need to make up ground over the weekend.
For overnight leader Trevor Fisher, yesterday was a nightmare. He opened this week with a day's best eight-under-par 63 on the west course; 24 hours later he was no less than 16 shots worse after carding an unhappy eight-over 79 which included six bogeys and two-double bogeys.
That put him on level par and from leading the tournament he has missed the cut.
He pushed his drive into the cluster of trees on the right of the fairway and, hacking away like an amateur, took three more shots in there before eventually finding a gap to the green.
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