New Zealand's Ryan Fox is in position to make the most of a late change of plans after claiming the second round lead in the Saudi International.
Fox completed a second consecutive 65 at the Greens Golf and Country Club shortly before play was suspended for the day following an earlier two-hour delay due to bad weather. At 10 under par he shares the lead with Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher, who completed the final six holes of his round on Saturday morning.
World number one and 2019 winner Dustin Johnson was eight under with four holes remaining, and moved within a shot of the leaders in the morning. England’s David Horsey, who equalled the course record with an opening 61, was two over par for 12 holes of his second round to fall three off the pace. But recovered a shot in the morning.
Also on eight under are Andy Sullivan, Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger and Kevin Na. Tommy Fleetwood is a shot further back after exercising his option to complete the 18th after play was suspended, only to find the water with his second shot and card his only bogey of the day.
Ireland's Shane Lowry was three under after 17 holes, leaving him seven shots off the lead. He failed to close the gap further when play resumed. Cormac Sharvin's one under par second round leaves him one under overall. Graeme McDowell followed Thursday's level par 70 with another, while Paul Dunne at seven over par overall missed the weekend cut.
“I’m very happy,” Fox said after a round containing six birdies and a solitary bogey on the difficult ninth, his final hole of the day.
“It’s been a really solid couple days of ball striking and saw a few putts go in both days, which was nice. To be sitting near the top of this leaderboard is always a good thing. It’s a pretty strong field this week.
“I think we got very, very lucky (with the draw). No wind on Thursday morning and the showers went through with the thunderstorms. When we came back out it was pretty much perfect.
“You don’t often get two days of no wind around here and it was nice to take advantage of that. You get the bad side of the draw enough times, it’s nice to get the good side every now and again.”
Fox will return to New Zealand after the final leg of the European Tour’s “Desert Swing” and faces 14 days of quarantine when he gets home. The 34-year-old had to book a slot before he left and opted for February 9th, knowing that if he missed that date the next available was sometime in May.
Fox therefore thought about skipping the event in Saudi Arabia, but with a Jeddah-to-Dubai flight pushed back on Sunday evening he can make his connection to Auckland — via Kuala Lumpur — and make it home on the ninth.
Asked about being in contention for a second European Tour win, Fox added: “It is (where you want to be), as long as I can make my flight on Sunday to make sure I get back into New Zealand.
“I can just control what I can control. If I go out and play well, try to set the target and make them chase me. I don’t know how many of the top 50 in the world are here this week, but it’s a lot.
“And I certainly hope to be there one day. If I can play well this week, then it’s a step forward in that direction. If not, it’s just good experience and a nice finish to my desert swing because I don’t really know when I’m going to come back out here again.”
Second round scores and totals (UK unless stated, Par 70)
130 Stephen Gallacher 62 68, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 65 65
131 Dustin Johnson (USA) 67 64
132 Kevin Na (USA) 69 63, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 64 68, Andy Sullivan 66 66, David Horsey 61 71
133 Tommy Fleetwood 68 65, Tony Finau (USA) 68 65, Victor Perez (Fra) 67 66, Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 65 68, Joost Luiten (Ned) 67 66, Calum Hill 65 68
134 Tyrrell Hatton 67 67, Viktor Hovland (Nor) 68 66, Justin Rose 68 66, Laurie Canter 66 68, Antoine Rozner (Fra) 67 67
135 Bryson DeChambeau (USA) 65 70, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 67 68, Steven Brown 68 67, Guido Migliozzi (Ita) 68 67, Kurt Kitayama (USA) 67 68, Phil Mickelson (USA) 68 67, Chris Paisley 68 67, Soeren Kjeldsen (Den) 69 66
136 Ian Poulter 67 69, George Coetzee (Rsa) 66 70, Romain Langasque (Fra) 69 67, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 66 70, Thomas Pieters (Bel) 65 71, Ashun Wu (Chn) 68 68, Julian Suri (USA) 69 67, Justin Walters (Rsa) 68 68
137 Paul Casey 69 68, Jason Kokrak (USA) 70 67, Shane Lowry (Irl) 70 67, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 68 69, Lee Westwood 67 70, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 70 67, Thomas Detry (Bel) 67 70, Matthew Southgate 70 67, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 66 71, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 66 71
138 Wilco Nienaber (Rsa) 71 67, Rafael Cabrera (Spa) 69 69, Justin Harding (Rsa) 68 70, Takumi Kanaya (Jpn) 67 71, Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 71 67
139 Patrick Reed (USA) 69 70, Danny Willett 67 72, Robert MacIntyre 71 68, Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den) 70 69, Cormac Sharvin (NIrl) 70 69, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 69 70, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 69 70, Ross Fisher 69 70, Jazz Janewattananond (Tha) 69 70, Jamie Donaldson 72 67
140 Abraham Ancer (Mex) 71 69, Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 70 70, Graeme McDowell (Irl) 70 70, Ross McGowan 68 72, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 69 71, David Law 70 70, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 71 69, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) 66 74, Matthias Schwab (Aut) 68 72, Oliver Wilson 68 72, Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) 73 67, Sean Crocker (USA) 68 72, Jeff Winther (Den) 67 73, Dean Burmester (Rsa) 69 71, Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 68 72, James Morrison 67 73, Julien Guerrier (Fra) 70 70,
The following players did not make the half-way cut:
141 Matt Wallace 73 68, Chris Wood 73 68, Lucas Herbert (Aus) 70 71, Min-Woo Lee (Aus) 69 72, Scott Hend (Aus) 71 70, David Lipsky (USA) 70 71, Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 69 72, Haotong Li (Chn) 65 76, Kalle Samooja (Fin) 69 72, Ignacio Elvira (Spa) 71 70, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 73 68, Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 70 71, David Howell 71 70, Joel Stalter (Fra) 69 72, Francesco Laporta (Ita) 70 71
142 Brandon Stone (Rsa) 70 72, Harry Hall 70 72, Garrick Higgo (Rsa) 70 72
143 Aaron Rai 69 74, Jorge Campillo (Spa) 69 74, Adrian Otaegui (Spa) 68 75, John Catlin (USA) 69 74, Alexander Bjoerk (Swe) 72 71, Kristoffer Broberg (Swe) 70 73, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 72 71, Jason Scrivener (Aus) 75 68, Adria Arnaus (Spa) 69 74, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 72 71, Andrew Johnston 70 73, Gavin Green (Mal) 71 72
144 Paul Waring 71 73, Alexander Levy (Fra) 71 73, Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 71 73, Richie Ramsay 73 71, Scott Jamieson 74 70, Grant Forrest 69 75
145 Ernie Els (Rsa) 74 71, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 74 71, Jordan Smith 71 74, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 75 70, David Drysdale 70 75
146 Henrik Stenson (Swe) 72 74, Shergo Al Kurdi (Jor) 69 77, Eduard Rousaud (Spa) 72 74, Ashley Chesters 70 76, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 71 75
147 Sami Valimaki (Fin) 73 74, Renato Paratore (Ita) 72 75, Paul Dunne (Irl) 73 74, Othman Almulla (Sau) 71 76, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 71 76, Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 73 74
148 Sebastian Soederberg (Swe) 73 75, Jayden Schaper (Rsa) 74 74, Oliver Fisher 72 76
151 Richard McEvoy 73 78
153 Marc Warren 74 79, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 74 79
158 Saud Al Sharif (Sau) 80 78, Faisal Alsalhab (Sau) 77 81
