Denmark's Thomas Björn stormed into contention in the Mercedes-Benz South African Open at East London with a five under par 67 in the second round.
Björn was one of 54 players forced to return to the course at 0640 local time this morning to complete his first round after two delays for lightning on Thursday afternoon.
The Ryder Cup player only had one hole to play before play was halted as darkness fell. But he made the most of his early start with a birdie on the 18th to get back to level par. The BMW International Open champion had fought back from three over after 12 holes to card a 72, and then carried on where he left off.
Starting his second round on the ninth, an eagle at the par five 11th was followed by birdies at the 12th, 13th and 15th to move him to five under par. His run came to an end with dropped shots on the 17th and the first but the Dane bounced back with three birdies on the third, fourth and seventh. A dropped shot on the final hole gave him a round of 67. And took him to within three shots of the lead held by South African Roger Wessels.
Wessels, another who had been forced into an early start and had earlier completed a first round 67. Wessels then picked up three more shots in his opening eight holes to move ahead of overnight leader and compatriot Hennie Otto to eight under par.
Bradley Dredge added a 70 to his opening 67 to move to seven under par and into a share of second place alongside Germany’s Tobias Dier who picked up six birdies in his first 16 holes of the second round.
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