– The Houghton Golf Club remains hostile territory for Spanish golf. We reported on Ten Golf this week that in ten tournaments held there, there hasn’t been a single top 10 finish to speak of. Breaking that curse is now solely in the hands of one man. It is Alfredo García Heredia (-3). The Asturian acts as Don Pelayo in the Joburg Open and remains the only Spaniard not defeated by the general cut army. The rest, home. Alex del Rey (PAR), Manu Elvira (+1), Rafa Cabrera Bello (+3), Joel Moscatel (+5), and Iván Cantero (+7) failed. The casualty report is extensive and stark. Not only did they miss the cut, but they didn’t even come close.
– If we only look at the passport, we could also add Adrián Otaegui (-4) to the list of survivors, but the Basque player, for golfing purposes, is Emirati, so he officially doesn’t count. The only chance we have left to break that invisible wall of the Houghton Golf Club is García Heredia.
– Alfredo made it into the weekend with a morning round of 68 strokes. He made four birdies and two bogeys, more or less the same as yesterday. The golfer from Gijón has brilliantly exploited the first five holes of the old South African course in Johannesburg. His score for the first two days here has been six under par. In the remaining 13, he totals +3. The difference is notable.
– Thanks to those first five holes, not only did he make the cut, but he also signed a sequence he hadn’t achieved in all of 2025 or throughout the DP World Tour season. In the previous eight tournaments, where he managed to make four cuts, he hadn’t yet strung together two rounds under 70 strokes. The first time was today at Houghton. A step forward. It happens that Alfredo wasn’t exactly brimming with confidence before starting the Joburg Open. In fact, he confessed to Ten Golf in the hours leading up to the tournament that he wasn’t feeling sharp. You know how golf goes. A piece fits here and another there, and suddenly the game becomes more fluid.
– Alfredo is far from the lead, but there are 36 holes ahead. Can we think about victory? Of course, but for that, he has to be by far the best golfer of the weekend at Houghton. Right now, he is eight strokes behind the leader, South African Shaun Norris (-11), already a winner this season, and five from the top 10. Anything that brings him closer to those positions would be a good and necessary boost to his season start. After all, his best position so far is 43rd in the PGA of Australia. Not much.
– As we say, South African Norris (-11) is the tournament leader after signing the best round of the day (63 strokes) with a one-stroke advantage over Frenchman Adrien Saddier (-10), who doesn’t like sneezing near him when playing golf. Not even if you have an allergy attack. In third position are Indian Shubhankar Sharma (-9) and Scotsman Connor Syme (-9). Then comes a packed chasing group with players like Chinese Wenyi Ding (-8), South African Jacques Kruyswijk (-8), also a winner this year, and the Englishmen Callum Tarren (-8) and Richard Mansell (-8).
– Of the 80 South Africans who started the tournament (it sounds quick), only 24 made the cut, and the truth is they are not delivering the best team performance of their lives, although the leader, of course, is one of them. Apart from Norris and Kruyswijk, the next ones are already in 14th place. By the way, a victory for Norris would almost directly qualify him for the PGA Championship, as it would give him a good jump in the world rankings, where he is currently 103rd.
– Among those who made the cut, Kieran Vincent stands out, the player who last year was part of Jon Rahm’s team in LIV Golf. He is in 20th place with -5. On the other hand, among those who missed out, the main name is John Parry, the best player in the tournament according to the world ranking. His place has now been taken by Romain Langasque, who secured his presence by the skin of his teeth by sinking one from outside on the 17th.
