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Van Zyl holds early Paarl lead

Cape Town - The familiar name of Jaco van Zyl was once more perched atop the leaderboard after the morning session of the first round at the SAA Pro-Am Invitational at Paarl Golf Club on Thursday.

Van Zyl fired in seven birdies and a lone bogey to complete a fine six-under par 66 to lead by one shot over Trevor Fisher Jnr who closed with a flawless 67.

Eight players including Jean Hugo, last week’s champion at the Vodacom Business Origins of Golf event in Stellenbosch, lie in a group just one shot further adrift, with Paarl local Jacques Blaauw back at two-under par.

Yesterday’s winner of the Pro-Am, Merrick Bremner who is also celebrating his 100th start on the Sunshine Tour, made another solid start with a three-under par 69.

Van Zyl was more than satisfied with his round after only finding out yesterday that his driver head had cracked. Luckily he was able to borrow another one from fellow professional Andrew Curlewis and the rest is history.

Starting his round on the 10th tee, van Zyl opened his campaign with a birdie before adding another at the 12th. His only bogey of the round happened just two holes later at the short par-three 14th, where earlier Ross Wellington holed out from the tee with a pitching wedge to record the seventh hole-in-one this season.

Van Zyl then got that shot back with another birdie on the closing par-five. Four birdies at regular intervals followed on his second nine to cap off a successful first day for him. And with the wind picking up this afternoon, he may just stay in the driving seat coming into tomorrow morning.

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