ON FIRE Aldrich Potgieter of South Africa plays a shot from a bunker on the 18th hole during the second round of the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld 2025 at Vidanta Vallarta on February 21, 2025 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Picture: Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images/AFP
Image: Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images/AFP
South Africa’s Aldrich Potgieter scorched his way to a 10-under 61 in the second round to lead by four at the Mexico Open on the PGA TOUR on Friday.
The 20-year-old also became the fourth-youngest player to shoot 61 or lower on the PGA TOUR since 1983.
In October last year, Potgieter became the second youngest player to earn a US PGA Tour card, via the Korn Ferry Tour (KFT) moneylist.
He finished 29th on the KFT moneylist, with the top-30 earning playing privileges for the forthcoming season on the PGA Tour. The KFT is the secondary golf tour in the USA.
On Friday, Potgieter began with a birdie on his first hole and followed that up with five in a row before the turn to go out in six-under 29.
Potgieter said he realised then he could be heading for an extremely low score.
"I knew on the back nine there was a couple of par 5s, three par 5s that I still had available to me, just tried to birdie those three and come up with a good score," Potgieter said.
"Yeah, made some bonus birdies and didn't birdie the par 5s, which were unfortunate. Yeah, really happy with today.”
The big-hitting South African had another good day with the driver, and revealed how he was able to hit driver off the deck on the 604m par 5 12th which set-up another birdie.
"I've been practicing doing a drill on the driving range with teeing it really low and hitting it really good with the diver that way," Potgieter said.
"I was telling my caddie, I was like 'let's just do the same thing.' It was a perfect number, so yeah, hit the perfect shot."