A chip-in for birdie on the 18th holes on Friday helped Christo Lamprecht to a four-under-par 68 in the second round of the Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour co-sanctioned AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open at Mont Choisy Le Golf, Grand Baie.
It was, in fact the second chip in for the tall former world amateur number one, after he chipped in for eagle on the short par-four 13th. He moved to seven-under for the tournament, and a share of third at the halfway mark, one stroke off the lead.
He made three birdies and a double-bogey on the front nine. He picked up another birdie on the 10th, before dropping a shot on the 12th. Then came the big tee-shot on 13 which left him just off the green next to a greenside bunker on the front left. His delicate chip from there never looked like missing. He birdied 14, bogeyed 15, and then rounded things out with his second chip-in of the day when he removed the flag on the par-five 18th to knock the ball in from the fringe right of the green.
He shared third with the Danish rookie, Jacon Skov Olesen, who carded a two-under-par 70. In slightly easier conditions – but still windy – Eddie Pepperell held on to the lead he had after the first round at eight-under-par after his 70, and he was joined by another Dane, Hamish Brown, who carded his second-successive 68.
The leaderboard remains extremely close going into the final 36 holes, with Lamprecht particularly keen to take advantage of a new mindset he has for this tournament.
“The mindset this week has changed. I just came from playing PGA Tour Q School in America and that was one of the most tense weeks of my career by far. So coming over here with my whole family, who I haven’t seen in a year, I’m treating it as a holiday week and just having fun. That’s been really helpful. It’s a holiday weekend now. That’s all it is. I’m just going to go out there and enjoy it,” he said.
Pepperell is well aware that a weekend of opportunity awaits and the last two days have given him some much-needed confidence for the challenge ahead.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been able to feel really confident because it’s just been a lot of bad stuff in there at times. But I think what I’ve been working on with my swing the last few days does have legs, and let’s hope it has weekend legs,” he said.
“The confidence goes quicker than it comes back, but we all know that if you’re a good player and you find something the confidence can come back quite fast. Then you’ve just got to keep that magic as long as you can. That’s the challenge for me to overcome this weekend.”
As co-leader, Brown is looking forward to a weekend of continuing the momentum of having just gained his DP World Tour card through the European Challenge Tour.
“It’s nice. There’s still a lot of golf left, but it’s nice. I never doubted my ability to be good enough at this level. But it’s still nice to actually do it. I’m looking forward to the weekend,” he said.
The leaderboard remains extremely close going into the final 36 holes, with Lamprecht in particular keen to take advantage of a new mindset he has for this tournament.
The upper reaches of the leaderboard is filled with South Africans pushing for a strong finish to the year: Louis de Jager leads the way amongst those players, and he had a 68 to move into a share of fifth at six-under.
Jacques Blaauw, Dylan Naidoo and Christiaan Burke were on five-under in a share of seventh, while Trevor Fisher Jnr, Jovan Rebula, Wilco Nienaber and Jayden Schaper were on four-under in a share of 11th. With them on four-under was Sunshine Tour regular Ricky Hendler of the United States.
