Michael moves two clear

Rookie Anthony Michael continued his excellent start to the Alfred Dunhill Championship by moving two strokes clear at the halfway stage in Malelane.

 

The little-known South African carded a three-under-par 69 to follow up his 66 on day one - although his round was more up and down on Friday as it included three bogeys mixed amongst six birdies.

However, it was good enough to keep him top of the leaderboard at the Leopard Creek Country Club, where his closest challenge was coming from a trio of players in countrymen Alex Haindl and Dawie Van der Walt along with Englishman Robert Rock.

Haindl was particularly impressive storming his way around the course in a bogey-free six-under 66, a round that was set up by a set of eagles on the par-five 15th and par-five second along with two birdies.

Still, the 27-year-old from Bloemfontein, who began on the back nine on Friday, was not entirely satisfied with Callaway RAZR X Irons .

He said: "I hit nice hybrids in for my eagles - on the front edge on 15 where I sank quite a nice putt, and I hit it to about seven feet on two.

"I three-putted once, and I missed quite a few six-footers. The greens are quite difficult - there's quite a bit of grain in them. But the rest of my Titleist 909 D3 Driver been good," he added.

"It's been a much better year for me. All the work I've been doing with my coach John Dixon's starting to come through."

Norwegian Marius Thorp was all alone on six under par overall after following his 67 up with a 71, while six players were further back on five under.

Defending champion Pablo Martin was one of them after a round of 70, along with another local Keith Horne, Dane Thorbjorn Olesen, Swede Oskar Henningsson and Britons Scott Jamieson and Neil Cheetham.

Overall leader and baseball-fanatic Michael, who only turned professional a year ago, admitted he was happy to have achieved his target set out at the start of play Titleist 2010 710 AP1 Irons .

He said: "I went out there today just to shoot under 70. I said that if I can shoot three rounds under 70 that will be really good.

"I got off to a pretty good start and that took some of the pressure off and from there I kicked on.

"I felt comfortable out there and there was a sense of belonging for me. So all in all, I'm quite happy."

Open champion Louis Oosthuizen continued his woeful record at the Mpumalanga course by missing the cut for a fifth year in succession.

The 28-year-old, the highest ranked player in the field with his world ranking of 24, improved in round two with a one-under 71, but his 76 on day one proved his downfall. (Taylormade R9 Max Driver TYPE E )

The other two high-profile home-favourites, Charl Schwartzel and Richard Sterne, did survive the weekend chop, though - the former with a second successive 72 (four under overall) and the latter ending round two with a level-par 72 (one over overall).

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