Centurion - Jaco Van Zyl fired a second consecutive 66 to surge into the lead at 12-under par after the second round of the Telkom PGA Pro-Am played at Centurion on Thursday.
He leads by one shot from Brazilian Adilson Da Silva on 11 under who scored a second round five under par 67.
The leaders made the most of tough scoring conditions where the wind picked up in the afternoon as Van Zyl explained: “Today was a lot harder, because it became breezier in the afternoon and it made club selection tough.”
Van Zyl got off to a blistering start on his opening nine using his putter just six times in the first five holes with birdies on holes one, four and five with an eagle on the par-5 seventh: “I got off to a nice start where I holed some good putts”.
His fast start quickly slowed down on the back-nine: “I missed a short birdie putt on ten, and after the 11th I didn’t pick up any more shots.”
At one stroke behind him, Da Silva is also in the midst of a good run of form and is looking for back-to-back wins following his triumph in last week's Zambia Open.
His 67 began with nine pars, and then he surged into contention with five birdies in seven holes on the second nine “Ten and 11 were straight into the wind and that was really testing.” added Da Silva.
Once Da Silva made the turn his putter heated up and he had just eight putts in seven holes including four consecutive birdies from the third to the seventh.
Trevor Fisher Jnr shot a second round 66 to move into a tie for third with Jbe’ Kruger on 9-under . “I hit the ball good, but I didn’t sink enough putts” Fisher explained.
“I dropped on 16 coming in, where I hit the wrong club, I hit the 52 degree sandwedge and it just didn’t hold on the green” added Fisher
The final day of competition looks to be a shootout between Da Silva and Van Zyl, but Van Zyl as defending champion, will be the man to beat.