Erik van Rooyen followed up his superb first round with a second round of two-under-par 69 on Friday to head into the weekend of the PGA Tour’s Mexico Open at Vidanta in fifth place.
Although he was unable to match the scores of any of the players in a four-way share of the lead, he was nonetheless just one shot off the pace at 10-under through 36 holes. The lead was shared by England’s Matt Wallace, Finn Sami Valimaki, Mexico’s Alvaro Ortiz and American Jake Knapp.
In contrast to his first round where he made two eagles, Van Rooyen had four birdies and two bogeys in his second on a day where he had less good fortune than he did on the opening day. He started his round on the 10th, and dropped his first shot on the 11th. He had another bogey after the turn, on the second. There were two birdies on each of the nines.
Garrick Higgo had his second successive one-under-par 70 to head into the weekend in a share of 50th on two-under.
The other South African in the field, MJ Daffue, was also in a share of 50th after a second round 10 strokes worse than his first at four-over 75.
