Stars in contention after rain delayed 2nd round at Saudi Open....full leaderboard

 Saudi Open Leaderboard

With drone technology we are seeing some fascinating aerial shots of the River Greens complex surrounding the Saudi Open, the subdivision lots all clearly marked out and ready for the luxury housing that will follow when the ex patriots, and tourists from around the world arrive to take up the residence Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his ruling family are anticipating.

The catalyst for all of this is now partially through round 2 after a rare weather delay from 1pm -3 local time with young Norwegian star Victor Hovland in the clubhouse lead after his bogey free -6 66.

When play resumed Kiwi Ryan Fox managed to get finished with a 65 -10 total for the overnight lead in the clubhouse and half of the field still not finished, and the cut projected to fall at E,  the final field for the weekend won't be  set until early Saturday morning.

However if you look at my leaderboard you'll see it's shaping up to be a good weekend with stars like Tommy Fleetwood and Dustin Johnson at -8, Justin Rose at -7, Tony Finau and Tyrrell Hatton at -6. Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson at -4 all due to return to play at 7.30am local time before beginning their 3rd rounds.

What stunning sunsets they enjoy with this River Greens complex perched right on the edge of the Red Sea, this Economic City megaproject announced by then King Abdullah in 2005 is still under construction, in 2015, only 10 years old the population was 7,000, expected to quadruple by today with the goal of being a non-oil dependent city.

However the Kingdom as it is known still suffers from it's reputation for disregarding and abusing native Saudi's and thousands of expatriate workers from Asia who live in crowded unsanitary conditions, their futile war with Yemen, the crippling loss of oil revenues fuelled by COVID, that have brought development to a standstill while the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tries to lead his country into a new future hopefully accompanied by wealthy tourists and investment companies from from around the world.

Bryan Angus