Haydn Porteous hadn’t even teed off his second round and still held the lead in The Hyundai Open as another wave of weather resulted in a suspension of play at the Ebotse Links on Friday.
After the suspended first round was completed on Friday morning, the second round was also suspended because of weather and will resume at 7am on Saturday.
Porteous, who held the overnight lead, was unable to tee off his second round and leads by one shot on eight under par.
But Ireland’s Rowan Lester and South Africa’s Lyle Rowe and Ryan van Velzen managed to close the gap as his nearest challengers on seven under and still on their front nines.
Lester is in his first season on the Sunshine Tour, and is loving life on the fairways in South Africa.
“I’ve been here a few times before with the Irish team. I really like it here and the style of golf suits my game. The food is good and the people are very friendly,” he said.
Lester is also quite pleased with his progress thus far.
“I feel like I have been playing nice all season to be honest. I’ve been just a few shots out of top-10s the last sort of six weeks. It’s just the putting that has been letting me down. This tournament, I had a few good putts and that’s the difference between shooting one or two under par, compared to six or seven under par. It was nice to keep the bogeys off the scorecard.”
Luis Carrera, the current Fortress Rookie of the Year leader, is in a group of players on six under par.
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Photo: Tyrone Winfield/Sunshine Tour
Article Link: Irishman Lester makes move at Hyundai Open