Luke Donald joins Ryan Fox at top of leaderboard at rain-hit Nedbank Golf Challenge
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Published 11/11/2022 at 16:36 GMT
After an opening day played out in glorious sunshine at the Gary Player Country Club, the second day of the Nedbank Golf Challenge was hit by lightning and heavy rain. The leading group of Ryan Fox, Luke Donald and Guido Migliozzi were only able to complete three holes before play was halted for the day. Officials are hopeful the event will be played out in full.
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Officials remain hopeful that the Nedbank Golf Challenge will remain a 72-hole tournament, despite most of Friday being lost to rain.
Overnight leader Ryan Fox and playing partners Luke Donald and Guido Migliozzi only managed to play three holes before the event was interrupted at 11:49am local time.
The players were taken from the Gary Player Country Club due to the threat of lightning, which remained in the area for some time.
Once the electrical activity had moved on, heavy rain hit the area and areas of the course became waterlogged.
With little chance of getting the course fit for play before the light disappeared, officials took the decision to halt play for the day.
Round two will resume at 7:45am on Saturday, and pairings will remain the same for round three to ensure as quick a turnaround time as possible.
Tournament director David Williams said: “We came off the course due to lightning, that danger remained for a few hours, and unfortunately, the rain then continued. We went out to have a good look at the course, and it was waterlogged. What it needed was the rain to stop for a couple of hours to allow us to prepare the course.
“When it got to around 3.30pm it meant that, at most, we would only get a few holes completed, and conditions still would not have been good. We decided that the sensible move would be to suspend today and re-start tomorrow at 7.45am. The groups will remain the same for the third round, with no re-draw, to minimise the turnaround time between rounds.”
After three holes, Donald had joined Fox at the top of the leaderboard after a birdie on his second hole took Europe’s Ryder Cup captain to eight-under.
Ross Fisher was likely the most disappointed player to be taken off the course, as he surged up the leaderboard after three birdies and an eagle took him to six-under for the tournament after 10 holes.
Rasmus Hojgaard was another to make a positive move, with the Dane making birdies on three of his opening six holes to get to six-under.
Defending champion Tommy Fleetwood is at three-under after eight holes of his second round.
Fox knows that a win in South Africa would take him above Rory McIlroy to the top of the DP World Tour Rankings ahead of the final event of the season at the Earth Course in Dubai next week.
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