Two-time IGT Challenge Tour winner Ruan Conradie may have swapped the amateur circuit for the paid ranks over the New Year, but the switch didn’t harm his confidence one bit.
Thanks chiefly to a string of four birdies around the turn, the 21-year-old from Wingate Park registered a four-under-par 68 to move within striking distance of second-round leader Jaco Prinsloo in the Race to Q-School #12 at Randpark Golf Club on Tuesday.
For a second day running the Sunshine Tour campaigner, who captured his sixth title on the country’s premier development golf circuit in the final event of 2016, showed his class at the Bushwillow Course.
Prinsloo fired a six-under-par 66 to move to 11 under and he leads by three shots from Conradie and by six from third-placed Jonathan Waschefort.
Italian amateur Philip Geerts is sandwiched at four under between professionals Quintin Crause, Bryce McCabe, NJ Arnoldi and Heinrich Bruiners, while two-time Challenge Tour winner Jake Roos took a seat on the bus at three under alongside Paul de Beer and Italian Jacopo Vecchi Fossa.
Conradie and his brother Estiaan caused quite a stir on the country’s premier golf development circuit last year when 19-year-old Estiaan scored a hat-trick of wins and Ruan added his second with a wire-to-wire performance in the Race to Q-School #5 at Ebotse Links in November.
The older Conradie still has a score to settle, though. ‘Estiaan has been lording his hat-trick over my head for months now, so I would really like to get that third victory to shut him up,’ he said. ‘It would be great to get it done this week, because he is pretty far back, so no danger of a surprise attack.’
Both brothers decided to play the last six events in the Race to Q-School series this season as professionals to gain some experience at playing for money.
‘It’s the final stretch, so we decided that the added pressure will be good for us to prepare for the Sunshine Tour Q-School in March,’ Conradie said.
‘I don’t think too much has changed for me. I’m taking the same approach as last year to the game, but I had to remind myself that patience is next to godliness when the putts stopped dropping on the back nine.’
Conradie followed a birdie at 14 with a bogey at 15, but rebounded with a 15-foot birdie putt at the par four 16th that set off a four birdie flurry around the turn.
‘I hit a poor drive at 17, but punch out well and got a wedge close to the pin,’ he said. ‘I sunk the five-footer for birdie and holed another 15 footer for birdie at 18 to turn three under.
‘I hit my tee shot right again at the first, but punched out and got another wedge close; this time I had a six-footer for birdie. Then the well ran dry and I missed eight chances coming home. They were all close, burning the edges of the hole.
‘I’m putting really well, so I know I need to stay patient, because they will start to drop. Whether I can catch Jaco remains to be seen. He is so experienced and a regular IGT Challenge Tour winner. Plus he is hitting the ball and putting incredibly well at the moment. It will take a really low round to make a dent in his lead, but I’m going to try and chase him down.’
Picture of Conradie courtesy of CJ du Plooy
Second round scores:
All competitors RSA unless otherwise specified and amateurs indicated as AMA.
133 – Jaco Prinsloo 67 66
136 – Ruan Conradie 68 68
139 – Jonathan Waschefort 71 68
140 – Quintin Crause 69 71, Bryce McCabe 71 69, Philip Geerts AMA (ITA) 69 71, NJ Arnoldi 72 68, Heinrich Bruiners 70 70
141 – Paul De Beer 71 70, Jacopo Vecchi Fossa (ITA) 74 67, Jake Roos 71 70
142 – Tyrone Ryan 71 71, Stephan Erasmus AMA 72 70, Andrew Carlsson AMA 75 67, Albert Venter AMA 72 70, Neal Herman 71 71, Sipho Bujela 67 75, Calvin Caldeira 70 72, Duane Keun 71 71
143 – Herman Loubser AMA 74 69, Ruhan Van Dijk AMA 73 70, Musiwalo Nethunzwi 76 67, Hayden Griffiths AMA 69 74, Makhetha Mazibuko 71 72, Dongkwan Kim (KOR) 75 68, Coert Groenewald 69 74
144 – John McClean (NIR) 72 72, Johan Van Der Wath 75 69, Paul Boshoff 76 68, Gregg Blainey (ENG) 73 71, Louis Albertse AMA 71 73, Allister De Kock 74 70
145 – Omar Sandys 72 73, Gerard Du Plooy 74 71, Teagan Moore 70 75, Matt Bright 73 72, John Parkinson 71 74
146 – Thabang Simon 73 73, Owen Grobler 72 74, Christian Basson AMA 73 73, Divan Marais 77 69, Michael Palmer 75 71, Justin Turner 76 70, Derick Petersen 77 69, Terence Boardman 71 75, Altaaf Bux 69 77, Gary Daoust (BEL) 76 70
147 – Irvin Mazibuko 75 72, Craigen Clough AMA 71 76, Matthew Spacey 75 72, Ruan Korb AMA 79 68, Phillip Kruse AMA 76 71
148 – Stephan De Beer 76 72, Eric Park AMA (KOR) 73 75, Conner Mackenzie AMA 71 77, Matthew Vogel 74 74
149 – NJ Van Der Walt AMA 77 72, James Ford (ENG) 76 73, Neal Hauptfleisch AMA 74 75, Neil Cheetham (ENG) 76 73, Theunis Bezuidenhout AMA 83 66, Michael Kok AMA 76 73
150 – Jeff Hopkins (IRE) 73 77, Mark Fraser 72 78, Trevor Mahoney 76 74, Sam Botham (ENG) 77 73, Estiaan Conradie 73 77
Missed the cut:
151 – Shalan Govender 73 78, Lincon Cele 76 75
152 – Wayne Stroebel 73 79, Bryce Myburgh 75 77, WM Coetzee AMA 73 79, Kyle Barker 77 75, Eric Nel AMA 78 74
153 – CJ Levey 78 75, Shaun van Tonder 78 75, Cameron Esau 77 76, Thabi Ngcobo AMA 79 74, Wesley Baptiste AMA 75 78, Pedro August 81 72
154 – Herman Steyn AMA 75 79, Shane Irwin AMA (IRE) 74 80, Reinard Vermeulen AMA 80 74
155 – Stefan Labuschagne AMA 77 78, Ryan Wingrove AMA 79 76, Mark James (ENG) 82 73, Phumlani Maluka AMA 77 78, Matt Wollmann (ZIM) 80 75
156 – Nicklas Van Wyk AMA 80 76, Gilson Filho (BRA) 83 73, Jason Thalrose AMA 78 78
157 – Mitchell Lightfoot AMA 81 76
158 – Richard Tsai AMA 78 80, Leon Visser AMA 78 80, Richard O’Donovan (IRE) 82 76, Gareth Akers 77 81, Andrew Van Der Knaap AMA 78 80
159 – Marco De Beer AMA 80 79, Michael Dreyer 83 76, Adam Baker AMA 80 79, Dylan Docherty 79 80
160 – Jack Kutumane 77 83
161 – Dylan de Beer 84 77
162 – Dean Bakos AMA 78 84, Brad Harris (ENG) 84 78, Duan Nagel AMA 80 82, Jadrick Fourie AMA 79 83, Mohammed Ismail AMA 81 81, Matthew Hands AMA 78 84
163 – Mellett Hendrikse 82 81, Igor Milicic (SRB) 82 81, Joshua Leo AMA 80 83, David Carroll AMA (IRE) 80 83
164 – Dylan Morton AMA 86 78, Dwayne Coetzee 81 83
165 – Stephen Forsyth AMA 83 82, Christopher Constantinou AMA 78 87
167 – Ricardo Towell 85 82
168 – Gary Jutzen AMA 83 85
177 – Phillip Calitz AMA 89 88
179 – Ntswelengwe Tsatsimpe AMA 90 89
WDN – Hendrikus Stoop AMA 77 WDN
N/R – Connor Foley AMA 84 N/R
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