Improving Howell beats South African storms (From Swindon Advertiser)

Improving Howell beats South African storms

6:00am Saturday 14th January 2012 in Golf

DAVID Howell rattled off 21 holes of solid golf at the Joburg Open yesterday before returning to the club house just in time.

The Swindon man had his first 18 holes delayed by thunderstorms on Thursday and was unable to complete all of his opening round on the East Course.

Reaching the 15th hole was all the ex-Ryder Cup star could manage so he was forced to complete the final three holes yesterday morning.

He carded two pars and one birdie to pull him back to two-over par for the tournament.

Following on from this, Howell switched to the West Course and was able to shoot a score three shots better than his opening round.

Howell picked up a shot on the second before bogeys at four and seven set him back.

But a birdie at the ninth finished the front nine nicely.

The Wiltshire player birdied the par-four 12th but then immediately dropped a shot at the 13th to take him back to level par for the round.

However, Howell took just four strokes to complete the par-five 15th hole and pars. He finished his second round on one-under, leaving him one-over for the tournament.