Oliver Bekker barely held it together in rain and wind on Thursday in the second round of the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship to card a two-over-par 74 at Carnoustie to finish a tough day in a share of 10th place.

It was a shotgun start –nothing at all like the ones that LIV Golf has, and for completely acceptable reasons as organisers tried to beat the worst of the poor weather that was forecast – and Bekker got things going very nicely indeed from the 10th tee with birdies on 10, 12 and 14.

After his opening six-under-par at the Old Course – players play a round each on the Old Course, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns ahead of the cut and the final round on the Old Course – nine-under was a pretty tasty place to be in the conditions. But he was unable to keep out the effects of the weather after he made bogey on the 15th. There were four more bogeys on his card, but, on a day when only eight of the 168-man field broke par, two-over on the toughest course of the three was very acceptable.

Richard Mansell held the lead after play was completed, with the best round of the day, a four-under-par 68, taking him to 10-under for the tournament and a two-stroke lead over Alex Noren of Sweden. Antoine Rozner of France and Dane Niklas Nørgaard Møller shared third on seven-under. Bekker was on four-under.

Richard Sterne was the next best of the South Africans, on three-under after a level-par 72 on the Old Course in a share of 19th. Branden Grace was on two-under in a share of 27th after a level-par 72 at Kingsbarns, and so was George Coetzee after a three-over 75 at Carnoustie.

Casey Jarvis, Louis de Jager, Christiaan Burke and Daniel van Tonder were all on one-under.

For all the scores of the 25 South Africans in the field, visit https://www.europeantour.com/dpworld-tour/alfred-dunhill-links-championship-2022/leaderboard?round=2&holebyhole=true