For a second successive week, Eamonn Darcy had to try and turn disaster into triumph, but this time, in yesterday's bizarre South African PGA Championship, he had to do it all in one day.
And this time, unlike last week in the SA Open, he may have proved successful with a fighting comeback on a day when his sprained left ankle had to withstand 34 holes of golf.
As Tony Johnstone grabbed the Johannesburg tournament by the scruff of the neck with a typical barrage of 10 birdies to lead by three strokes on 12-under-par, Darcy had no option but to play similar aggressive golf to the Zimbabwean former Volvo PGA champion after posting a firstround five-over-par 77.
Aggressive is as aggressive does. A second round 68, just as he did last week after his nightmare opening 82 in Durban, hauled Darcy back to only one-over-par. Now he will probably have to wait much of this morning before the second round is completed and he learns whether that is enough to make the cut.
Having started by saving par at his second hole at around 9 a.m. after further electrical storm problems like the ones which wiped out half a day's play on Thursday, Darcy's round collapsed at its nadir with late double-bogeys.
He did not even have time to digress on the error of his ways or his ill-luck because within 25 minutes - and a hasty lunch of only five minutes - he was back out on the course.
Tournament organisers decided to play the usual format of alternating each half of the draw, so that meant yesterday's men who could not play or finish their first rounds, went straight back out. This left those who finished by Thursday lunchtime before the lightning problems - including Francis Howley and Raymond Burns and Greg Norman and Nick Price - cooled their heels all day without a game.
Perhaps not being able to dwell on his 77 helped Darcy because soon he was totting up the birdies, too. He was not as prolific as Johnstone, who is three in front of outsider Scott Dunlap from the US, with the formidable Ernie Els six behind, but Darcy produced an admirable second round in which the Druids Glen professional picked up four shots and dropped none.
It was a fine effort from a man with a sore ankle he twisted on Tuesday and who understandably cannot concentrate fully, with his father seriously ill at home.
