Da Silva holds Sun City lead

Sun City - Brazilian Adilson da Silva holds the second round lead of the R600 000 Sun City Classic at the Lost City Golf course.

Da Silva kicked off his round on a morning when scoring was difficult for everyone and carded a two-under-par 70 to move into a two stroke lead.

In the valley where the Lost City Golf Course is situated, the winds swirled just enough to make birdies an endangered species as some of the first-round contenders slid down the leaderboard, leaving Da Silva two strokes clear of Vaughn Groenewald and another one ahead of overnight leader, Jake Roos.

"There was a bit of a wind in the early morning," said Da Silva,

"Also on some of the fairways, the ball was picking up a bit of mud.

"I had about three or four of those, and I just had no control over them."

But Da Silva being Da Silva, he worked his way around it.

"I managed to just keep it in play and I holed a couple of putts on my back nine," he said,

"So in the end, it was a good day."

He came close to winning when he was pipped at the post by Jacques Blaauw last week, and his consistency has put him in position to have another shot at victory this week.

There’s work to do, however. 

Attie Schwartzel heads into the final round of the 54-hole tournament, three strokes behind leader Adilson da Silva.

Schwartzel is fresh off his maiden professional victory after he won on the Sunshine Big Easy Tour at Houghton last week, and he was pleased with his efforts at keeping himself in the race despite the difficulties he had in scoring.

"The pins were tucked away in difficult positions for me," he said.

"A lot of them were on the left of the greens, and I’ve got a fade, so it was difficult to get to them. I was hitting 30-footers all day."

It was a tough day all round at the Lost City Golf Course, where only three players broke 70.

Lindani Ndwandwe closed with two birdies in the last three holes for his four-under-par 68 and a share of sixth behind Da Silva, while Andrew Curlewis and Mark Murless each carded three-under-par 69 and were in a group of four players on two-under for the tournament, five shots adrift of the lead.

Schwartzel was in a group of three in a share of third -- the other two players are Roos and Ryan Tipping.

Groenewald was one of the few players under par for the day with his 71, and he was two off Da Silva’s pace.

If the course offers as much of a challenge in the final round, it is going to be tough to catch Da Silva, however Schwartzel is one player who has not given up hope.

"If I can just play as well as I did in the first round, I’ve got a chance," he said.

Second round scores from the R600 000 Sun City Classic played at the Lost City Golf Club on Thursday:

Scores (RSA unless specified):

137 - Adilson Da Silva (BRA) 67 70

139 - Vaughn Groenewald 68 71

140 - Jake Roos 66 74, Ryan Tipping 67 73, Attie Schwartzel 67 73

141 - Jacques Blaauw 68 73, Jean Hugo 71 70, Merrick Bremner 70 71, Jared Harvey 68 73, Sipho Bujela 71 70, Lindani Ndwandwe 73 68

142 - Neil Cheetham (ENG) 70 72, Grant Muller 72 70, Andrew Curlewis 73 69, Mark Murless 73 69

143 - Ruan de Smidt 71 72, Alex Haindl 69 74, Juan Langeveld 71 72, Steven Ferreira 73 70, Dion Fourie 72 71, Daniel Greene 70 73, Ockie Strydom 72 71, Tyrone Mordt 71 72, Jeff Inglis (ENG) 70 73

144 - Michael du Toit 73 71, Grant Veenstra 71 73, Matthew Carvell 70 74, Ryan Cairns (ZIM) 71 73, Hendrik Buhrmann 72 72

145 - Bradley Sinnett 74 71, PH McIntyre 70 75, Desne van den Bergh 74 71, Bradford Vaughan 72 73, Anthony Michael 72 73, Wallie Coetsee 73 72

146 - Charl Coetzee 74 72, Ulrich van den Berg 71 75, Lyle Rowe 68 78, Michiel Bothma 75 71, Shaun Norris 71 75, Oliver Bekker 68 78, Danie van Tonder 71 75, Neil Schietekat 72 74, JJ Senekal 75 71, Toto Thimba (Jnr) 75 71, Jake Redman 71 75 Missed the cut:-

147 - Tsietsi Mofokeng (LES) 73 74, Tyrone Ferreira 73 74, Christiaan Basson 74 73, Justin Harding 73 74, Titch Moore 77 70, Torben Baumann (GER) 70 77, Derik Ferreira 72 75, Graham van der Merwe 73 74, Des Terblanche 77 70

148 - Louis Calitz 72 76, Divan Gerber 73 75, Theunis Spangenberg 74 74, Dean Burmester 71 77, Chris Swanepoel 74 74, Allan Versfeld 72 76, Bryce Easton 73 75, Teboho Sefatsa 75 73, Divan van den Heever 75 73, Duane Keun 77 71, Morne Buys 76 72

149 - Mark Williams 74 75, Trevor Fisher Jnr 75 74, JG Claassen 72 77, Ross Wellington 78 71, Michael Hollick 69 80, Gert Myburgh 75 74

150 - James Kamte 76 74, Stuart Smith (BOT) 75 75, Keenan Davidse 75 75

151 - Prinavin Nelson 78 73

152 - Coenie Bester 75 77, Colin Nel 71 81, Micky Hough (ZIM) 76 76, Musiwalo Nethunzwi 76 76

153 - Riekus Nortje 81 72, Chris Erasmus 76 77, John Bele 79 74

154 - Dayne Moore (ZAM) 81 73