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Meyer sizzles to lead Zim Open

Harare - Breyten Meyer carded his best ever tournament round on Saturday at Royal Harare Golf Club to take a one shot lead over Vaughn Groenewald at the Zimbabwe Open.

Out in seven-under-par 29 on the front nine, Meyer held his nerve to birdie twice on the homeward nine and sign for a nine-under-par 63.

“Today when I started off, I hit good shots and I made putts. On the back-nine there were a few nervy shots, but going bogey-free was really good. I knew I was able to post a good score. My golf has been good over the last year - I just haven’t been able to put it together - but I’ve been working harder than ever before,” he said.

Starting the tournament with a triple-bogey seven on the first hole, Meyer clawed back and now finds himself in contention on Sunday with a tournament total of 12-under-par.

“It’s interesting. I started the tournament with a triple-bogey. I put in a lot of work for this trip - for Zim and Zambia - and it’s a bummer starting with a triple, but I knew I just had to be patient because I’ve put in all the work.”

Groenewald began his round in brilliant fashion, carding three straight birdies. He would go on to birdie once more on the back-nine to sign for a four-under-par 68 and a total of 11-under-par for the tournament.

“I found something on the range this morning and I struck the ball amazingly today. It was tricky out there and I had a couple shots where I didn’t trust it , but I played solidly the whole day. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and I’m feeling good,” he said.

Steve Surry is another player who took advantage of the good conditions on moving day and carded a five-under-par 67 to leap into sole possession of third place on eight-under-par.

Hennie du Plessis fought back from an early double-bogey to card a four-under-par 68,  and finish in fourth place on seven-under-par for the tournament.

Unfortunately, defending champion Dean Burmese made a triple-bogey eight on the par-five 16th to see his title defence slip away.

Since moving down to George on the Garden Route, Groenewald and Meyer have played together to hone their games and tomorrow they will make up the final pairing.

Meyer commented: “I know Vaughn well and he’s also moved down to George, so we’ve played a lot of golf together and it’ll be great to go out with him on the last day.”

Away from the scores, it was a special day as players, spectators and officials were clad in blue to raise awareness for autism at Royal Harare Golf Club. Along with the PGA Tour, which did their ‘blue-day’ at the RBC Heritage on Thursday, the Sunshine Tour and Zimbabwe Golf Association joined hands to help promote the Els for Autism Foundation and the Pathways Autism Trust.

Scores:

204 - Breyten Meyer (RSA) 72 69 63

205 - Vaughn Groenewald (RSA) 67 70 68

208 - Steve Surry (ENG) 69 72 67

209 - Hennie du Plessis (RSA) 72 69 68

210 - Jonathan Agren (SWE) 71 71 68, Merrick Bremner (RSA) 67 75 68, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (RSA) 73 69 68, Teaghan Gauche (RSA) 69 70 71,Mark Murless (RSA) 65 73 72, Lyle Rowe (RSA) 69 69 72

211 - Danie van Tonder (RSA) 68 73 70, Louis de Jager (RSA) 65 70 76

212 - Daniel Greene (RSA) 71 73 68

213 - Grant Veenstra (RSA) 72 71 70, Steven Ferreira (RSA) 69 72 72, Jacques Kruyswijk (RSA) 68 71 74, Kevin Rundle (RSA) 71 68 74

214 - Christofer Blomstrand (SWE) 74 70 70, Dylan Frittelli (RSA) 72 71 71, Colin Nel (RSA) 74 67 73, Matthew Carvell (RSA) 72 68 74, Dean Burmester (RSA) 70 69 75,Bryce Easton (RSA) 69 70 75

215 - Erik van Rooyen (RSA) 76 71 68, Stephen Ferreira (POR) 69 76 70, Madalitso Muthiya (ZAM) 70 75 70, Kieran Vincent (ZIM) (AMA) 73 72 70

216 - Chris Swanepoel (RSA) 75 73 68, Christiaan Basson (RSA) 69 77 70, Martin Rominger (SUI) 72 74 70, Ruan de Smidt (RSA) 67 79 70, Jacques Blaauw (RSA) 68 78 70,Doug McGuigan (SCO) 69 74 73, Jbe' Kruger (RSA) 72 69 75, Jack Harrison (ENG) 69 72 75, Scott Vincent (ZIM) 71 68 77

217 - Ruan Huysamen (NAM) 72 76 69, Jaco Prinsloo (RSA) 71 76 70, Roux Jeffery (NAM) 71 74 72, James Kamte (RSA) 72 72 73, Mark Williams (ZIM) 70 69 78

218 - JJ Senekal (RSA) 73 72 73

219 - Jared Harvey (RSA) 73 75 71, Greg Bentley (ZIM) 76 72 71, Dayne Moore (ZAM) 70 77 72, Zander Lombard (RSA) 71 75 73, Andre de Decker (RSA) 72 73 74,Tyrone Mordt (RSA) 70 74 75, Oliver Bekker (RSA) 72 72 75, Jason Froneman (RSA) 69 74 76

220 - Callum Mowat (RSA) 75 73 72, Drikus van der Walt (RSA) 74 74 72, Mohammad Rauf Mandhu (ZIM) 76 72 72, Jason Viljoen (RSA) 71 76 73, Ryan Cairns (ZIM) 71 75 74,Bryce McCabe (RSA) 70 76 74, Allan Versfeld (RSA) 69 75 76

221 - Ockie Strydom (RSA) 74 74 73, Alexander Knappe (GER) 71 76 74

222 - JC Ritchie (RSA) 74 72 76, Lindani Ndwandwe (RSA) 69 75 78

223 - Andrew Curlewis (RSA) 73 74 76, Andrew Odoh (NGA) 72 72 79, Zachary Portemont (USA) 70 72 81

224 - David Amm (ZIM) (AMA) 70 78 76, Marc Cayeux (ZIM) 70 75 79

229 - Conway Kunneke (RSA) 72 76 81

Missed the cut:

149 - Bryandrew Roelofsz (RSA) 74 75, Gary Thompson (ZIM) 73 76, Armandt Scholtz (RSA) 73 76, Jaco Ahlers (RSA) 74 75, Anthony Michael (RSA) 75 74,Adilson Da Silva (BRA) 76 73, Justin Harding (RSA) 74 75, Jake Redman (RSA) 74 75, Gert Myburgh (RSA) 74 75

150 - Neil Schietekat (RSA) 73 77, Jeff Hopkins (IRL) 74 76, Trainos Muradzikwa (ZIM) 73 77, Jacquin Hess (RSA) 71 79, Le Roux Ferreira (RSA) 70 80,Bradford Vaughan (RSA) 75 75

151 - Divan van den Heever (RSA) 75 76, Heinrich Bruiners (RSA) 78 73, Charl Coetzee (RSA) 74 77, Tyrone Ferreira (RSA) 72 79, Toto Thimba (Jnr) 70 81,Andrew Georgiou (CYP) 76 75

152 - Russel Franz (RSA) 73 79, CJ du Plessis (RSA) 78 74, Etienne Bond (RSA) 76 76, Day Muyambo (ZIM) 78 74, TC Charamba (ZIM) 75 77, Werner van Niekerk (RSA) 77 75,Ryan Tipping (RSA) 75 77, MJ Viljoen (RSA) 79 73

153 - Arthur Horne (SWZ) 74 79, Francois Coetzee (RSA) 82 71, Biggie Chibvuri (ZIM) 75 78, Titch Moore (RSA) 79 74, Thanda Mavundla (RSA) 74 79, Alex Haindl (RSA) 78 75,Derik Ferreira (RSA) 77 76, Wayne Stroebel (RSA) 75 78, Patrick Mwendapole (ZAM) 80 73, Theunis Spangenberg (RSA) 71 82, Jeff Inglis (ENG) 74 79, Bryce Bibby (RSA) 75 78,Irvin Mazibuko (RSA) 74 79

154 - Robson Saurombe (ZIM) 79 75, Rourke van der Spuy (RSA) 75 79, Divan Gerber (RSA) 73 81, Bryn Flanagan (RSA) 76 78, Calvin Pearson (RSA) 75 79,Omar Sandys (RSA) 77 77, Jason Diab (RSA) 73 81, Derick Petersen (RSA) 76 78, Brett Liddle (RSA) 75 79

155 - Stuart Krogg (ZIM) (AMA) 78 77, Wallie Coetsee (RSA) 76 79, Henry Featherstone (ENG) 75 80, Justin Kersten (ZIM) (AMA) 76 79, Ruan Pretorius (RSA) 74 81

156 - Stefan Engell Andersen (KEN) 79 77, Werner van Wyk (RSA) 72 84, Rhys West (RSA) 77 79

157 - William Lake (ZIM) 78 79, Roy Da Costa (POR) 81 76

158 - Nyasha Muyambo (ZIM) 74 84, Michael Hollick (RSA) 79 79, Ryan Lang (ZIM) 75 83, Thembelani Vundla (ZIM) 81 77, Stuart Smith (BOT) 80 78, Brian Gondo (ZIM) 78 80

159 - Morne Buys (RSA) 82 77, Neal Herman (RSA) 80 79

160 - Benard Magaso (ZIM) 79 81, Dale Howie (ZIM) 79 81, Leorin Pillay (RSA) 83 77, Dwayne Basson (RSA) 80 80

161 - Cosmas Kingsley Mufaya (ZAM) 78 83, Lyford Yadyo (ZIM) 82 79, PH McIntyre (RSA) 79 82

162 - Julius Kamalizeni (ZIM) 80 82, Rasheed Mohamed (ZIM) (AMA) 80 82, Anyway Katembenuka (ZIM) 86 76, Simon Murungweni (ZIM) 81 81

163 - Teboho Sefatsa (RSA) 83 80, Shane Granger (BOT) 81 82

164 - Dennis Anguyo (UGA) 83 81, Richard Chitakatira (ZIM) 82 82, Pride Sembo (ZIM) 78 86, Phillip Tshuma (ZIM) 83 81, John Milazi (ZIM) (AMA) 80 84

165 - Nixon Masunga (ZIM) 80 85

166 - Tanaka Mhere (ZIM) (AMA) 82 84

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