Papadatos starts strong in South Africa

Dimi Papadatos gets ticket hunting in South Africa. Credit: Getty.

The Australian Dimitrios Papadatos began its last chance in 2018 to win a European Tour card with an impressive 67 at the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa.

Papadatos participated in the season closing tournament of the Challenge Tour with a chance to end the campaign in the most important top 15, but damaged a club and then played, leading to a disqualification.

He still had a chance to earn his game privileges at the Australian PGA Championship but missed again and is now looking for a very important victory to secure a place on tour.

His bogey-free lap set the early pace at Leopard Creek Country Club and with leader Oliver Bekker only one shot ahead of him on the way to the second round, the 27-year-old was happy with his day job.

"It was really hard today," he said. "The wind was pretty strong, a lot stronger than the forecast, the greens were fairly strong and fast so yes, I was very happy with that round.

"I did not know that I was free of bogey, but I'm pretty happy to keep the scorecard clear of the bogeys, I tried to get a little shape and after the missed cut last week it was fun to turn things around."

Raphaël Jacquelin was a shot behind Papadatos when he first appeared at Leopard Creek during his 599th European Tour event