The man who shared the lead after the first round of the DP World Tour’s Turkish Airline Open, Robin Williams, made bogey on the 10th on Friday in the second round at Regnum Carya in Antalya, Türkiye.
He shared shared some insight into the tough 10th hole after his second round of one-under 70 took him to seven-under and a share of fourth with Todd Clements of England, and Germany’s Yannik Paul and Tiger Christensen.
“The 10th is tough,” said Williams. “It’s over 500 yards, and the wind is usually coming a little into or off the left. The fairways is a max of 25 or 30 yards wide, and you’ve got water all down the left. I think the members play it as a par-five. Everyone is hitting it in the right trees just because they’re scared of the water. The trees aren’t too bad if you get lucky with a gap, but you’re left with at least a six- or seven-iron in to a small, undulating green. It’s just difficult. I think it’s going to play over-par for the whole week. If you make pars there, you’re really gaining on the field.”
While he didn’t gain on the field ahead of the 36-hole mark, he was not unhappy with his three birdies and two bogeys. “Things were almost going a little too well yesterday,” he said. “Today wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the same as yesterday, so I just had to kind of keep it together and put myself in the hunt for the weekend. I tried to not make big numbers and blow myself out of it. Hopefully, the outs can drop tomorrow and Sunday.
“The putting didn’t feel different from yesterday. Yesterday, they went in, and today they were just lipping out or going very close. I didn’t hit it particularly close to the flag compared to yesterday, so I left myself a lot of long putts. But if today can be the worst score that I have, I think I’ll be good.”
He was happy to bogey the final hole of the day. “The birdie on 18 really give me some confidence and momentum to have a crack this weekend,” said Williams. “Luckily, the wind has been down the past two days, so I just smacked driver over the water, which I don’t think most guys can do, so I had an advantage there. It was a front flag today and I had 90 yards in, left myself under the hole and made a nice putt there from seven or eight feet up the hill.”
Three other South Africans made the cut: Investec South African Open champion Dylan Naidoo, Jayden Schaper and Dylan Frittelli. They were all on three-under, just eight shots off the pace.
“I played really well yesterday and just had a few hiccups coming home, but I feel my game was rounding back to what I want it to be today,” said Naidoo of his three-under 68. “With not much between the leaders and me, I’ll just go out there tomorrow and shoot a good score and see where it puts me.”
Frittelli, who was runner-up in Türkiye to Justin Rose in 2017, had three birdies and a bogey on his way to a two-under-par 69, and Schaper overcame a double-bogey on the 13th after starting his round on the 10th with five birdies on his opening nine and one more on the homeward nine.
“I just hit a really poor tee-shot on 13,” Schaper said, “and I hit quite a good second which just clipped a light pole. You don’t hear about that too often, as we don’t play too many courses that have light poles. So that was unlucky and I ended up making double there.
“After that, I knew I had to fire to get myself back into the tournament. I made birdie on 14 and 15, and saved par with a really good momentum-saving putt on 16. When I birdied 17 and 18, that was pretty much what I had to do to get myself back into the tournament,” he added.
Jacques Kruyswijk, Justin Harding, Yurav Premlall, Casey Jarvis, Ockie Strydom, Zander Lombard, Louis Albertse, Ryan van Velzen, Justin Walters and Deon Germishuys all missed the cut.
