A balky putter saw Ruan Conradie slip to a two-over-par 74 on Friday in the second round of the Challenge Tour’s Vierumäki Finnish Challenge at Vierumäki Resort in Finland. His five-under 36-hole total saw him finish in a share of 37th.
He was disappointed after his opening seven-under 65 which had two bogeys and no birdies, but even though he was 11 shots off the lead still held by Denmark’s Marcus Helligkilde who added a 67 to his first-round 61, he was looking forward to changing things around over the weekend.
“The putter was ice cold today,” he said. “My ball striking was still solid, but both my bogeys came from three-putts out of nowhere. On top of that I missed eight opportunities inside of 10 feet. So if I could’ve just made a handful of those putts then I would’ve been in a strong position after today. But there is still all to play for over the next two days though.”
One shot behind Conradie was Martin Rohwer who signed for what must have been a frustrating one-under-par 71. He had made five birdies through 13 holes, but then he made a double-bogey on the par-four 14th. He kept things steady enough after that, but he dropped successive shots on the final two holes as a round which could seen him substantially higher on the leaderboard than his share of 45th.
Another shot back was Hennie du Plessis, who atoned for a poor first round 77 with a superb six-under-par 66 to move to three-under for the tournament and a share of 55th. That helped him make the cut too.
Not so lucky was Merrick Bremner, who also had a much imprived performance in the second round with his four-under 68. After his opening 75, he was one-under after 36 holes, but that was not enough to see him through to the weekend.
