Paul Lawrie has some catching up to do over the weekend as Englishman Ross McGowan set a furious pace during the second round of the Joburg Open at Royal Johannesburg & Kensington.
While Lawrie posted a three-under 69 on the East Course for a five-under aggregate of 138, McGowan came barging up the field with a sparkling nine-under 62 on the West Course as he surged into a three stroke lead with a 14-under tally of 129.
Having regained his tour card at November’s qualifying school, a resurgent McGowan is enjoying his second spell on the main circuit after finally shaking off a series of injuries that stalled his promising career.
The 33-year-old secured his maiden win on the European Tour at the Madrid Masters in 2009 and was very much in the race to qualify for the European Ryder Cup team of 2010 until a nasty wrist injury brought his rise shuddering to a standstill.
After marking his return to the top table with a solid 12th place finish in last week’s BMW South African Open, McGowan upped the ante yesterday as he took charge of affairs in Johannesburg.
A brace of birdies at the first and second got him off and running and he reached the turn in three-under before he moved through the gears on the back-nine. A pair of eagles, at the 12th and 15th, and two more birdies saw him storm away from the chasing pack.
“After opening with two birdies, I went a bit flat for a few holes and then on the back nine, the fireworks happened,” said McGowan, who finished ahead of Felipe Aguilar, Haydn Porteous, Jean Hugo and Anthony Wall of England.
Wall was runner-up in last year’s Joburg Open and he pushed himself into the hunt again with an eagle and two birdies on his last four holes in a 67 for an 11-under 132. Paul Dunne, the Irish rookie who led last year’s Open as an amateur going into the final round, hauled himself into the top-10 with a rousing 63 for a 134 while former Open champion Ernie Els survived the halfway cut with nothing to spare on the three-under limit after picking up a birdie on his final hole.
Scott Henry, who beat McGowan to the Scottish Open Amateur Strokeplay title in 2006, and fellow Scot, Craig Lee, both made the cut on the 140 mark but Jamie McLeary, David Drysdale, Peter Whiteford and Bradley Neil all departed.
In the far east, Darren Clarke expressed his satisfaction after his European team built a commanding lead over their Asian Tour counterparts during the opening session of fourballs in the EurAsia Cup.
Clarke, who will also lead Europe in the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine later this year, saw team talisman Ian Poulter lead from the front by partnering Bernd Wiesberger to a 4&3 win over Anirban Lahiri and Jeunghun Wang as the visitors opened up a 4 ½ - 1 ½ advantage.
"A three-point lead after day one, it's a wonderful start for Europe," said Clarke, who will be taking nothing for granted after Europe squandered a 5-0 lead in the inaugural contest two years ago and eventually had to settle for a 10-10 draw.
"There were a lot of matches there that it could have swung either way on the back nine. Halfway around Europe were leading in all the matches. I was on the radio to a few of the other guys and said, 'This is match play, Asia are going to come back at some stage on the back nine, and that's exactly what they did’. We had a strong couple of matches and managed to finish with a very good result."
In the unpaid game, the Scottish duo of Grant Forrest and Connor Syme progressed into the quarter-finals of the Australian Amateur Championship in Melbourne.
Forrest, the former Scottish Amateur champion who has a fine pedigree in the matchplay format, overcame Welshman Owen Edwards at the 19th hole in the second round before edging out his fellow Scot and GB&I Walker Cup team-mate Jack McDonald by one hole in the last 16.
Syme, who reached the semi-finals of the Amateur Championship at Portrush in 2014, eased past Australia’s Dylan Perry 4&3 before beating another home hopeful, William Heffernan, by a 2&1 margin.
Forrest and Syme are aiming to become the first Scottish winner of the Australian crown since Eric Ramsay in 2005.
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