GOLF:ROOKIE ANTHONY Michael continued his excellent start to the Alfred Dunhill Championship by moving two strokes clear at the halfway stage in Malelane.

The little-known South African carded a three-under-par 69 yesterday to follow up his 66 on day one – although his round was more up and down as it included three bogeys mixed amongst six birdies.

However, it was good enough to keep him top of the leaderboard at the Leopard Creek Country Club, where his closest challenge was coming from a trio of players in countrymen Alex Haindl and Dawie Van der Walt along with Englishman Robert Rock.

Haindl, a 27-year-old from Bloemfontein, was particularly impressive storming his way around the course in a bogey-free six-under 66, a round that was set up by a set of eagles on the par-five 15th and par-five second along with two birdies. He said: “I three-putted once and missed quite a few six-footers . . . but the rest of my game’s been good.”

Norwegian Marius Thorp was all alone on six under par overall after following his 67 up with a 71, while six players were further back on five under.

Defending champion Pablo Martin was one of them after a round of 70, along with another local Keith Horne, Dane Thorbjorn Olesen, Swede Oskar Henningsson and Britons Scott Jamieson and Neil Cheetham.

Overall leader and baseball-fanatic Michael, who only turned professional a year ago, admitted he was happy to have achieved his target set out at the start of play which was to shoot under 70.

Open champion Louis Oosthuizen continued his woeful record at the Mpumalanga course by missing the cut for a fifth year in succession. The 28-year-old, the highest-ranked player in the field with his world ranking of 24, improved in round two with a one-under 71, but his 76 on day one proved his downfall.

Two other high-profile home-favourites, Charl Schwartzel and Richard Sterne, survived the cut – the former with a second successive 72 and the latter with a level-par 72 (one over overall).