From HotelPlanner Tour
JC Ritchie leads by one stroke heading into the weekend of the German Challenge powered by VcG after carding 10 birdies on day two on Friday at Wittelsbacher Golfclub.
The South African mixed those 10 birdies with four bogeys to sign for a six under par round of 66 and move to 11 under par for the week, one shot clear of Englishman Tom Lewis and Italian Enrico di Nitto who share second.
Ritchie fired six birdies in his opening seven holes on his way to setting the halfway pace in Bavaria, as he looks to win a fifth HotelPlanner Tour title and a first since 2022.
“I’m chuffed with that round,” he said. “I don’t think there’s much more I could ask for. It was a little bit of a roller coaster out there, but it was mostly good.
“I was ripping it yesterday and I think I only missed three greens. I got a little unlucky towards the end, but went out confident this morning and absolutely pinned it on the front nine. To keep it hot like that is always fun.
“I think it’s tricky when you’ve got a round like that going, dealing with the nerves. You always feel like you want to win the event now, but that’s why we’re here, to deal with the nerves, and that’s what makes this game awesome.
“I was happy to be able to manage myself on the back nine and find a couple more coming in.”
Ritchie impressed from the first tee on day two, recording three successive birdies from the first, before making three more in a row from the fifth.
The 31-year-old mixed three bogeys with a birdie over his next four holes, but responded by adding three more gains and a bogey over his final four holes to end a roller coaster round.
Ritchie has registered four top-10finishes already this season to sit sixth in the Road to Mallorca Rankings, and he says hard work in the off-season has given him a great chance of returning to the DP World Tour after a testing two years.
“It was tough over the last two years, losing my DP World Tour card and then not getting it back last year,” he added. “At the start of this season I wasn’t sure what to expect out of the year.
“I put my head down, grafted, and from the start of season, everything has panned out.
“I’ve done a lot of work this year, through December and into the new year, and a lot of hard work over the last two or three years is starting to settle in.”
