August 11, 2016: Rayhan Thomas shot 74 in the second round of the Boys Amateur Championship, lying T4, just two strokes behind the leader Kristoffer Reitan. Rayhan was in the lead after a stellar opening 65 on the Renaissance course, but endured a more difficult time dealing with the Muirfield patch on Wednesday.
Rayhan shot to the top on Tuesday firing seven birdies in the opening round. In the second, the young Indian conceded three bogeys on the front nine, offset to an extent by birdies at the 2nd and 5th holes.
Rayhan finished the afternoon adding two more bogeys – 12th and 18th to complete his round at three over 74.
Norwegian Reitan climbed to the top of the order with a second round score of one under 70 on the Muirfield course. He shot 67 in the first round.
“I am very pleased at finishing on top of the leaderboard”, said Reitan after finishing the round. “I just kept on fighting the entire day because there were not too many birdies out there and the conditions weren’t too easy. I made a lot of pars and I’m pleased with that. Unfortunately I made a bogey on the last but 70 is always a good score at Muirfield.
“Yesterday we (Markus) had a deal that we would have finished number one and two – because that is something that we would really like. Obviously I always wanted it to be me at the top but we just really wanted two Norwegians at the top of the leaderboard – that was our main focus.
“I just have to play one match at a time and keep on focusing on what I’ve been doing. I never take anything for granted and just keep on fighting and I really enjoy match play because it really suits my game and I get to be a little more aggressive. I’m looking forward to that.”
The lowest round of the day came from Harry Goddard, who shot a superb 65 at Renaissance Club to move up the leaderboard and finish on four-under-par in a tie for second place with Markus Braadlie of Norway.
