Darren Clarke bounced back from a disappointing opening day at the Joburg Open to surge up the leaderboard and move within striking distance of the halfway leaders.

A second round of 65, the lowest score of the day, containing seven birdies helped move the Dungannon man to four-under, five off the current lead held by South Africa's Mark Murless.

Heavy overnight rain delayed the start by an hour at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club but when play resumed Clarke was in sparkling form.

"I hit the ball better today and I putted really well," said Clarke, who was a lot happier with his game after struggling on the opening day.
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"I didn't hole everything but I sank a lot more six and seven-footers than yesterday so the round was a lot better."

However, there was little cheer for the four other Irish players in the field as they all missed the cut. Athlone's Colm Moriarty made a brave attempt with his second round 69 on the West course but still missed the level par cut by two shots.

Stephen Browne (74) missed by four shot, while Michael Hoey (72) and gareth Maybin (74) were both five off the halfway cut mark.

A strong finish from joint overnight leader Mark Murless allowed the South African to stay top of the leaderboard at the sodden Johannesburg venue.

A birdie and eagle on his last two holes helped the 31-year-old to a 68 which lifted him to nine under for the tournament - one shot ahead of Spain's Pablo Larrazabal, who also shot 68.

Aside from Clarke there were several other scores of 65 with South African Warren Abery setting
the early benchmark. Compatriots Chris Williams, Dawie Van der Walt and Branden Grace also managed six-under-par rounds, along with England's Robert Rock and Austrian Florian Praegant.

Abery's effort, added to his opening 70, kept him in tied third place along with Charl Coetzee and co-overnight leader Tyrone Ferreira.

But Murless would have been breathing a sigh of relief after his dose of double fortune before the close. Heading into the final two holes, he was level par for the round before he turned on the magic.

"I hit a crack of a drive (on 18) but left myself with an impossible yardage," explained Murless.
"I don't have a club in my bag for that yardage - I had 230 metres (250 yards) to the flag.

"My three iron is never going to get me there and my three wood is just too much club. I ended up hitting a soft three wood and put the best swing I could on the shot and it worked out beautifully.

Collated second round scores & totals in the European Tour Joburg Open, Royal Johannesburg and Kensington GC, Johannesburg, South Africa

(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 71):

West Course

135 Warren Abery (Rsa) 70 65, Charl Coetzee (Rsa) 68 67

136 Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 70 66

137 Andre Cruse (Rsa) 69 68

138 Brandon Pieters (Rsa) 70 68, Chris Williams (Rsa) 73 65

139 Robert Rock 74 65, Florian Praegant (Aut) 74 65, Edward Rush 70 69

140 David Drysdale 67 73, John Mellor 69 71, Brett Liddle (Rsa) 74 66, Lee S James 72 68, Justin Walters (Rsa) 73 67, Ian Garbutt 71 69

141 Liam Bond 70 71, Branden Grace (Rsa) 76 65, Kyron Sullivan 74 67, Benoit Teilleria (Fra) 71 70, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 70 71, Gary Emerson 69 72

142 Craig Lee 74 68, Chris Gane 73 69, Juan Abbate (Arg) 76 66, Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 75 67, Jan Are Larsen (Nor) 73 69, Andrew McArthur 73 69, Jbe Kruger (Rsa) 72 70, Klas Eriksson (Swe) 70 72

---------------Following players missed the cut----------------------------------

143 Ben Evans 75 68, Steve Alker (Nzl) 75 68, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 72 71, Des Terblanche (Rsa) 74 69, Rossouw Loubser (Rsa) 75 68, David Hewan (Rsa) 73 70

144 Scott Barr (Aus) 74 70, Leif Westerberg (Swe) 73 71, Andrew Oldcorn 75 69, Robert Dinwiddie 76 68, Jean Hugo (Rsa) 74 70, Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 77 67

145 John Bele (Rsa) 75 70, Ian Hutchings (Rsa) 76 69, Colm Moriarty 76 69, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 77 68, Robert Wiederkehr (Chn) 73 72, Christopher Hanell (Swe) 74 71, Chris Swanepoel (Rsa) 77 68, Nicolas Vanhootegem (Bel) 74 71, Andre Bossert (Chn) 74 71, Tyrone Van Aswegen (Rsa) 76 69, Van Phillips 74 71, Martin Maritz (Rsa) 75 70

146 Divan Van Den Heever (Rsa) 74 72, Tota Thimba jnr (Rsa) 76 70, Robert Coles 76 70, Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) 74 72, Stephen Browne 72 74, James Morrison 75 71, Marc Cayeux (Zim) 74 72, Michiel Bothma (Rsa) 77 69, Kieren Court (Rsa) 76 70

147 Ulrich Van Den Berg (Rsa) 77 70, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 75 72, Birgir Hafthorsson (Ice) 75 72, Wilhelm Schauman (Swe) 75 72, Gary Clark 78 69, Andreas Hogberg (Swe) 75 72, Ross Wellington (Rsa) 79 68, Wallie Coetsee (Rsa) 78 69, Keith Horne (Rsa) 78 69, Lawrence Dodd 76 71, Michael Hoey 75 72, Lindani Ndwandwe (Rsa) 75 72, Atti Schwartzel (Rsa) 75 72

148 Steven O'Hara 73 75, Bradford Vaughan (Rsa) 79 69, Tim Milford 76 72, Ph Mcintyre (Rsa) 78 70, Peter Karmis (Rsa) 76 72, Gary Thain (Rsa) 78 70, Alan Michell (Rsa) 76 72, Neil Schietekat (Rsa) 79 69

149 Gareth Paddison (Nzl) 77 72, Albert Pistorius (Rsa) 80 69, Ryan Cairns (Zim) 75 74

150 Paul Dwyer 79 71, Willie Van Der Merwe (Rsa) 79 71, Grant Muller (Rsa) 77 73, Grant Veenstra (Rsa) 77 73, Kalle Brink (Swe) 78 72, Vaughn Groenewald (Rsa) 78 72

151 David Carter 76 75

152 Heinrich Bruiners (Rsa) 79 73, Omar Sandys (Rsa) 76 76

153 Dion Fourie (Rsa) 81 72, Fredrik Widmark (Swe) 75 78

154 Eugene Marugi (Rsa) 79 75, Anthony Snobeck (Fra) 80 74

156 Paolo Terreni (Ita) 81 75

157 Peter Kaensche (Nor) 76 81

East Course

133 Mark Murless (Rsa) 65 68

134 Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 66 68

135 Tyrone Ferreira (Rsa) 65 70

136 Alex Haindl (Rsa) 68 68, Joakim Backstrom (Swe) 68 68, Iain Pyman 68 68, Paul Waring 69 67

137 Gary Boyd 68 69, Louis Moolman (Rsa) 68 69

138 Gary Lockerbie 67 71, Marco Ruiz (Par) 67 71, Sven Struver (Ger) 67 71, Darren Clarke 73 65

139 Martin Wiegele (Aut) 71 68, Sion Bebb 66 73, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 70 69, Garth Mulroy (Rsa) 67 72, Marcel Siem (Ger) 68 71, James Kamte (Rsa) 68 71, Dawie Van der Walt (Rsa) 74 65, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 71 68

140 Prinavin Nelson (Rsa) 68 72, Stephen Gallacher 70 70, Marcus Higley 68 72, Ariel Canete (Arg) 70 70

141 James Kingston (Rsa) 68 73, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 68 73, Oliver Bekker (Rsa) 67 74, Hendrik Buhrmann (Rsa) 70 71, Warren Bennett 69 72, Jamie Donaldson 70 71, Ross McGowan 66 75, Trevor Fisher Jnr (Rsa) 68 73, Dave Horsey 72 69, Deane Pappas (Rsa) 72 69

142 Ben Mason 70 72, Doug McGuigan 71 71, Jaco Van Zyl (Rsa) 70 72, Craig Lile (Rsa) 70 72, Ryan Reid (Rsa) 67 75, Teboho Sefatsa (Rsa) 68 74, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 70 72, Richard Bland 68 74, Henk Alberts (Rsa) 71 71, Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 71 71, Bobby Lincoln (Rsa) 71 71, Jake Roos (Rsa) 71 71, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 68 74, Marco Soffietti (Ita) 70 72, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 72 70, Werner Geyer (Rsa) 70 72

---------------Following players missed the cut----------------------------------

143 Steve Basson (Rsa) 71 72, Christiaan Basson (Rsa) 71 72, Peter Whiteford 73 70, George Coetzee (Rsa) 69 74, Manuel Quiros (Spa) 68 75

144 Shaun Norris (Rsa) 71 73, Stuart Manley 71 73

145 Desvonde Botes (Rsa) 75 70, Steve Lewton 75 70, Sebastien Delagrange (Fra) 71 74, Alan McLean 73 72, Andrew Marshall 71 74, Antti Ahokas (Fin) 69 76

146 Magnus Persson (Swe) 71 75, Jamie Little 72 74, Adam Gee 72 74, Adilson Da Silva (Bra) 71 75, Josh Cunliffe (Rsa) 73 73, Andrew Curlewis (Rsa) 76 70, Mohammed Tayob (Rsa) 75 71, Roland Steiner (Aut) 73 73, Steve Van Vuuren (Rsa) 74 72

147 Marc Farry (Fra) 72 75, Jeremy Kavanagh 69 78, Gareth Maybin 73 74

148 Hennie Otto (Rsa) 74 74, Wayne De Haas (Rsa) 72 76, Alex Baillie (Rsa) 76 72, Alessio Bruschi (Ita) 73 75, David Park 73 75, Jordi g Del moral (Spa) 73 75

149 Andy r Turner 73 76, Anders Schmidt Hansen (Den) 75 74, Euan Little 74 75, Nic Henning (Rsa) 75 74, Ryan Tipping (Rsa) 72 77, Louis De jager (Rsa) 70 79

150 Olivier David (Fra) 72 78, Jaco Ahlers (Rsa) 70 80, Michael Du Toit (Rsa) 73 77, Philip Golding 75 75

151 Gabriel Canizares (Spa) 73 78, Anton Haig (Rsa) 77 74, Gerlou Roux (Rsa) 69 82, Tongo Charamba (Zim) 76 75

152 Kevin Stone (Rsa) 73 79

153 Jeff Inglis (Rsa) 73 80

157 Dean Lambert (Rsa) 74 83

160 Andreas Andersson (Swe) 80 80