Thomas

Aiken

The South African has a superb record at Leopard Creek, logging no less than seven top 20s in 15 visits, four of them top tens, but this is, remarkably and should the afternoon starters not sweep by him, only the third time he has been top ten after 36 holes. The track was a tough proposition on Friday morning and so, although Aiken and Armitage set the pace, a handful of players remained above them on the live leaderboard. The 36-year-old had to graft for his score, swapping two birdies and a bogey on his first nine (the back) and then flipping it on the way home: two bogeys and a birdie. The dropped shots came at the sixth and eighth, so cost him the chance to leave himself bang in contention, but it seemed certain that the rare elevated halfway position would be his.

His afternoon round left him in a tie for sixth place and three back from leader Wil Besseling. The 36-year-old made a slow start with three pars and a bogey (No. 3) in his opening four holes but balanced the books with birdie-2 at 5. Another gain at 8 took him out in under par but he did his best work on the par 72’s back nine with red circles at 13, 15 and 16. The local South African has three top fives in this event, the most recent in 2016. He’s down at 429 in the world rankings these days but remains a viable option in his home events.

The South African finished down at 145th on the Race to Dubai last season and plays this week on a medical extension. Gamers looking for a cheap option should certainly check him out as Aiken owns an abundance of course form. He’s played every edition of this tournament since it became part of the European Tour in 2004 and has three top fives. The latest came in 2016 while he also cracked the top 20 in both 2014 and 2015. While it didn’t work out for him last season, he did end the campaign relatively well with T23 (Open de Espana) and T31 (Portugal Masters) in two of his final three starts.

The South African had always been ultra-consistent at this course, now a long-time host of this event. Last year was his ninth visit and he had never missed a cut. In one sense he maintained that record – he made the 36-hole cut, but he missed the 54-hole version. Before then seven of his eight appearances had reaped top 40s, but only once had he managed a top 20 and that was in 2014 (T12) when the tournament was only 36 holes. Perhaps note that in six of his nine starts he has been top 20 at some stage ahead of the weekend. His form is poor. He was T3 in the SA Open last December but in the calendar year he has not top 20 in 13 starts, but his best (T23) was recently in the Open de Espana.

Some good signs last week for the veteran South African, who has endured a difficult season after starting it well with three top 25s on the bounce, including T3 in his home Open. But from mid-February he went eight starts without a top 30 and the final five of those efforts were 1-for-5 with the exception T55. So T23 might not be a thrilling result, but it was a definite upgrade and at 138th on the Race to Dubai he needs a boost in this lucrative Rolex Series event. He’s experienced in Italy but his two top sixes there came in his first three visits in 2004 and 2009. In all he is 7-for-10 there with five top 30s, including last year when he was T10 heading into the final lap before finishing T30.

That quartet are a shot ahead of Oliver Wilson, Henrik Stenson and Romain Langasque. After morning rain softened the course, scoring was low and Aiken raced through his first nine holes in 5-under thanks to red numbers at 12, 13, 15, 16 and 17. After four pars he hit the birdie trail again with circles at 4, 5 and 7 to take the outright lead before he missed a 6-foot par putt at 8 to drop back into a tie. Aiken is 8-for-12 this season but his best results came before the winter break, a closing 63 helping him to 19th in Hong Kong before he added T3 in his home South African Open. This is his lowest lap in ten starts at the Scottish Open.

That was eight swings back from six-shot winner Louis Oosthuizen. Counting back from this week’s finish, Aiken’s results in the SA Open now read: 3-MC-5-5-17-3-3. He’d also had some useful form coming in with four top 25s in five starts so his strong performance played out as expected. Aiken cruised to the turn in 32 with birdies at 4, 7 and 9 while, on a more eventual back nine, he sandwiched an eagle-birdie run at 14 and 15 between bogeys at 13 and 17. There were three spots available for next year’s Open but Aiken was squeezed out due to Oliver Wilson and Charl Schwartzel having a higher world ranking despite them all finishing at 10-under.

That was eight swings back from six-shot winner Louis Oosthuizen. Counting back from this week’s finish, Aiken’s results in the SA Open now read: 3-MC-5-5-17-3-3. He’d also had some useful form coming in with four top 25s in five starts so his strong performance played out as expected. Aiken cruised to the turn in 32 with birdies at 4, 7 and 9 while, on a more eventual back nine, he sandwiched an eagle-birdie run at 14 and 15 between bogeys at 13 and 17. There were three spots available for next year’s Open but Aiken was squeezed out due to Oliver Wilson and Charl Schwartzel having a higher world ranking despite them all finishing at 10-under.

With day two nearly complete, it’s lifted the local man 16 spots to T9, five back from leader Charl Schwartzel. Aiken has been in good form with four top 25s in his last five worldwide starts so the only doubts gamers had over him this week were a pair of missed cuts at this venue. He’s put them to rest so far though, shooting 67 at the Bushwillow on day one and adding 68 at the tougher Firethorn today. So far this week, Aiken has birdied every par 5 (three on each course) but needs to make a few less mistakes after racking up five bogeys. He made two today (2 and 13) but scribbled birdies at 4, 5, 9, 12 and 14. The 35-year-old has three European Tour wins, the last of those coming in the 2014 Africa Open.

The South African will breath a big sigh of relief as he sleeps just two swings behind the leaders because he proved last year that he has the game for this course when T2 at halfway, but there was a time on Thursday when it looked like slipping away. He had made an early move with back-to-back red numbers at three and four, but then slumped to a double bogey-6 at the 471-yard par-4 ninth. He quickly made amends with birdie at the 11th and an eagle-3 at the 529-yard par-5 13th. Yet another par breaker at the 16th had him within one of the lead, but he closed with a bogey at 17. A third Friday at Hong Kong GC beckons and his past record is good: 69-64.