Fisher leads SA charge in Mauritius chase

Anahita - Trevor Fisher jnr signed for an untainted six-under-par 66 in round two of the Mauritius Open to total nine-under for the tournament and become the highest-placed South African going into the weekend at Four Seasons Golf Club at Anahita.

Still in the recovery process from his lower-back injury, Fisher was pleased to get through another round without any pain and while he’s here to compete for nothing less than the honour of being crowned champion, he will not pressure himself in any way to achieve that.

“I feel good,” he said on Friday. “I mean, I’ve shown signs of improving when I up-and-down. The last six months, one or two good rounds, and one or two bad rounds. So, it’s been there and about but I think this week I’ve just tried to get stronger on my mental side, a bit more confident, and a bit easier on myself at the end and it seems to be going okay.”

Starting from the 10^th tee on Friday, Fisher opened his round with a birdie and two pars later, he made an eagle which was followed by another birdie on his sixth hole, the 15^th of the golf course.

“I actually pulled my driver a little left,” he said about his eagle, “it wasn’t the best drive. I hit a rescue, just over the flag and I was about three or four yards, just off the green, and I had a great putt. It went in with a bit of speed and I was happy it found the hole.”

He trails the leading Kurt Kitayama by five shots after the American backed up his opening 65 with another seven-under-par round to take his tally to 14-under-par for the week at Anahita.

Kitayama’s opening birdie on day two was soon threatened by the double-bogey he made on the par-five second hole but that was just a small glitch in the machinery that was his hot putter. He soon forgot about that double and made four birdies, one after the other, while making pars from the seventh through to the ninth to turn in 33.

“I started with a birdie and then just had a little blunder at two,” said Kitayama after his round. “I got back on track straight right after so it was nice to bounce back after a double. I'm driving it well which is making it a lot easier. It's a pretty big advantage to be able to hit shorter irons in. I'm feeling pretty comfortable.”

Other South African players who will be happy with their positions going into the weekend include the in-form Justin Harding and Oliver Bekker, with both players sitting on eight-under for the week in Mauritius.

Scores:

130 - Kurt Kitayama 65 65

132 - Chikkarangappa S 64 68

133 - Victor Perez 64 69, Matthieu Pavon 67 66

134 - Gavin Moynihan 69 65

135 - Trevor Fisher jnr 69 66

136 - Lee Slattery 67 69, Justin Harding 67 69, Oliver Bekker 67 69, Masahiro Kawamura 65 71, Merrick Bremner 68 68

137 - Jbe' Kruger 70 67, Raphael Jacquelin 70 67, Max Schmitt 71 66

138 - Malcolm Kokocinski 67 71, Lionel Weber 69 69, Matthias Schwab 67 71, Clement Sordet 71 67, Adri Arnaus 72 66, Christiaan Bezuidenhout 70 68, Yanwei Liu 71 67, Jean Hugo 71 67, Christofer Blomstrand 70 68, Antoine Rozner 70 68

139 - Yikeun Chang 71 68, Alex Haindl 67 72, Ernie Els 69 70, Keith Horne 68 71, Pedro Figueiredo 71 68, David Drysdale 69 70, Dylan Frittelli 69 70, Fabrizio Zanotti 71 68, Ajeetesh Sandhu 69 70

140 - Bowen Xiao 73 67, Philip Eriksson 68 72, Jaco Ahlers 70 70, Gregory Havret 72 68, Adilson Da Silva 73 67, Paul Peterson 68 72, Rourke van der Spuy 68 72, Jordan Smith 68 72, Siddikur Rahman 70 70, Jaco Van Zyl 65 75, Berry Henson 69 71, Estiaan Conradie 70 70

141 - Nicolas Colsaerts 72 69, Hyowon Park 68 73, Joachim B. Hansen 71 70, Jack Harrison 71 70, Stuart Manley 71 70, Dawie Van der Walt 72 69, George Coetzee 69 72, Kim Koivu 70 71, Jeunghun Wang 76 65, Tyrone Ryan 69 72, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano 72 69, Thomas Aiken 70 71, Grant Forrest 70 71

142 - Haydn Porteous 76 66, Hennie Otto 74 68, Joel Girrbach 70 72, Julien Brun 70 72, Romain Langasque 70 72, Udayan Mane 70 72, Viraj Madappa 68 74

Missed the cut

143 - James Kamte 72 71, Gregory Bourdy 76 67, Marc Cayeux 75 68, Steve Surry 73 70, Bernd Ritthammer 72 71, Travis Smyth 68 75, Niall Turner 70 73, Ivan Cantero Gutierrez 72 71, Toto Thimba 74 69, Madalitso Muthiya 71 72, Adrien Saddier 71 72, Guido Migliozzi 73 70

144 - Oliver Wilson 73 71, Wenchong Liang 73 71, Aman Raj 75 69, Zander Lombard 72 72, Louis de Jager 73 71, Michael Palmer 71 73, Derick Petersen 72 72, Hennie du Plessis 72 72, Steve Lewton 72 72, Doug McGuigan 70 74, Lorenzo Gagli 72 72

145 - JJ Senekal 73 72, Per Langfors 74 71, Rhys Enoch 72 73, Jake Roos 72 73, Arjun Atwal 73 72, Benjamin Hebert 72 73, Khalin Joshi 77 68, Richard Sterne 71 74, Matias Calderon 74 71, Junya Kameshiro 72 73, Casey O'Toole 73 72, Daniel van Tonder 73 72, Jack Singh Brar 73 72, Filippo Bergamaschi 70 75, Jens Dantorp 69 76

146 - Scott Gregory 71 75, Liam Johnston 73 73, Christoffer Baumann 75 71, Baejong Park 71 75, Marcel Siem 70 76, Matthew Jordan 72 74, John Catlin 70 76, Jarin Todd 72 74, David Lipsky 74 72, Alvaro Quiros 70 76

147 - Vaughn Groenewald 74 73, Marc Ong 71 76, Settee Prakongvech 75 72, Jared Harvey 75 72, MJ Viljoen 71 76, Rhys West 75 72, Bryce Easton 74 73, Ben Evans 74 73, Karandeep Kochhar 72 75, Jesse Yap 70 77, Jean-Paul Strydom 72 75

148 - Jaco Prinsloo 77 71, Keenan Davidse 75 73, Mitchell Slorach 72 76, Basil Wright 74 74, Ockie Strydom 71 77, Bernd Wiesberger 72 76, Neil Schietekat 76 72

149 - Lyle Rowe 75 74, Steven Lecuyer 76 73, Justin Walters 75 74

150 - Matteo Manassero 76 74, Paul Harris 75 75, Shohei Hasegawa 78 72, Garth Mulroy 70 80, Jose-Filipe Lima 70 80, Simon Griffiths 74 76, Samarth Dwivedi 76 74

151 - Abdul Hadi 78 73, Ulrich van den Berg 76 75

153 - Carlos Pigem 79 74, Edoardo Molinari 77 76, Kristian Krogh Johannessen 77 76

155 - Ruan de Smidt 78 77

156 - Khai Jei Low 75 81

157 - Andre De Decker 75 82, Espen Kofstad 81 76, David Gleeson 79 78

158 - Pierre Pellegrin 77 81

165 - Adriel Poonan 85 80

RTD - Jyoti Randhawa 77 RTD, Anton Karlsson 71 RTD

RTD - Himmat Rai RTD