Branden Grace climbed 29 places on the leaderboard with a two-under-par 69 on Friday to move into a share of 28th at the halfway mark of the PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitational at Pacific Palisades, California.
He made five birdies, a bogey and a double in his round which saw him finish 10 strokes back of the leader, Sam Burns of the United States, who added a five-under 66 to his opening seven-under 64 to lead by five from Tyler McCumber, Jason Kokrak and world number one Dustin Johnson.
Grace got it to four-under by the time he reached the 15th, but he put his tee shot on the par-three 16th into a greenside bunker short right of the hole, came out sideways into the rough on the left, and was unable to get up and down to make bogey. He made a five there and held on for par for his final two holes.
Of the other two South Africans in the field, only Charl Schwartzel made the cut, making seven birdies and three bogeys in his fur-under 67 which lifted him into a share of 56th spot at level-par for the tournament. Dylan Frittelli’s one-under 70 moved him to three-over, missing the cut by three strokes.
In the Korn Ferry tour tournament, the LECOM Suncoast Classic in Florida, both Dawie van der Walt and Tyrone van Aswegen missed the cut. Van der Walt made a four-over 75 to go with his opening 67, and Van Aswegen’s one-over 72 saw him finish one-under for 36 holes, two outside the cut line.