Belgium’s Manon De Roey leads the way heading into the weekend at the Investec South African Women’s Open after carding a 67 (-5) in heavy winds to move to eight-under par.
On a testing day the Olympian had a birdie fest posting eight red numbers to overtake clubhouse leader Rosie Davies and take a one-shot advantage into Saturday at Erinvale.
“It was really tough conditions,” De Roey said. “I had something very similar at the start of the year in Saudi where we had very windy conditions, so maybe that helped me for this week. In these conditions, I just tried to stay patient and pick good starting lines from the tee with the wind and having the wind as my friend.
“I was just trying to putt without the gusts, you could hear the wind coming so I just tried to putt when there was no gust. Those putts at the beginning were quite long putts and a bit unexpected but I’ll take them.”
Teeing off in the afternoon, De Roey got off to a hot start despite gusty conditions birding three of her first four holes at the 2nd, 3rd and 4th.
A bogey halted her momentum on the 5th before the Belgian picked up two more shots on the 7th and 9th to go out in 32.
Onto the back nine and De Roey would bounce back from bogeys on the 10th and 14th with a pair of clutch birdies.
Chasing a second Ladies European Tour (LET) title, she would add another shortly after at the par-5 16th thanks to a fabulous bunker shot.
De Roey said: “I feel like if it’s windy like this I’m always more focused, so maybe that helps me a little bit. I just know you can also shoot low in windy conditions, you just have to stay patient out there and try to hit good shots and make good contact and that’s what I tried to do.
“Tomorrow is still going to be windy I think. There’s still two days, it’s a long way to go. I’m going to keep working on my own game and focus on my own thing and we’ll see at the end.”
One shot behind in solo second sits the beforementioned Davies. After holding the overnight lead alongside Switzerland’s Elena Moosmann, the Englishwoman fought hard on Friday posting a round of 71 (-1).
This card included three birdies in her final three holes, a hot finish which came after a dreaded double-bogey on the par-4 6th.
Davies said: “Starting on the back nine when the wind was at its peak was tough, I kept my head down, kept focusing on the next shot. I really worked hard with my caddie Alex. I feel like I stole one on 17, I rolled in a long one there which gave me a bit of momentum heading onto my back nine.
“I dropped two at hole six which I was a bit disappointed with, but I bounced back with three birdies to finish so really happy with that.
“It was an exhausting day, that has given me a bit of energy to finish. You can’t ask for more than to finish with three birdies and I’m excited for the weekend now.”
Sweden’s Lisa Pettersson, New Zealand’s Momoka Kobori, and England’s Annabell Fuller share third position on five-under par – the latter finishing with nine straight pars at Erinvale.
Four players sit in a tie for sixth on four-under par, a quartet which includes English duo Hannah Burke and Ellie Givens, Morocco’s Ines Laklalech, and Norway’s Julie Boysen Hillestad.
After 36 holes of action in South Africa, the cut fell at four-over par with 65 players making it through to the weekend. The full leaderboard can be found here.
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