Six-time DP World Tour winner Richard Sterne is sharing the lead with home hero Robert MacIntyre on 12 under par, with Louis Oosthuizen just one shot behind them and Herman Loubser four shots off the lead. Sterne had a stellar second round.

Sterne had a bogey-free 67 at The Old Course, but Scottish Ryder Cup star MacIntyre made seven birdies to join Sterne in the lead before play was suspended due to an unplayable course at 16:14 local time.

After the day’s play, MacIntyre said before the weather turned it was an almost perfect round of golf.

‘It’s hard to hit the ball good with the wind’

“It’s difficult when it gets this windy. It’s hard to hit the ball good with the wind. So, I was having to try and fight the wind on certain holes and wasn’t comfortable. But I made some beautiful shots. Yeah, putted solidly in the wind,” he said.

Sterne, who started his round in more benign conditions, turned in 34 thanks to birdies at the 11th and 14th on The Old Course before making three birdies in four holes from the second, holing two 16-foot putts along the way as the weather began to worsen.

“I got the right draw I think for the day, so that helped. After all the years of playing here, sometimes you get good draws, sometimes you get bad draws and today I got a good draw. Pretty happy with that,” Sterne said.

Oosthuizen’s priority was simply to make it through a tough day on the course in light of him not feeling his best this week.

Both Sterne and Oosthuizen are bidding to become only the second players in history to win both the Alfred Dunhill Championship and Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Fellow South African Branden Grace is to date the only player to have achieved this.

Those with holes still to complete will return to the course at 08:00 on Saturday before the third round begins at 12:30 with a shotgun start.

OFM Sport/Ilse Smalberger cvs