A flawless nine-under-par course record 63 at De Zalze Golf Club boosted South Africa’s top-ranked junior, Jayden Schaper, to the top of the leaderboard in the second round of the South African Stroke Play Championship.
The Ebotse golfer got off to an eagle-birdie start and racked up five birdies over the last six holes to establish a five-shot lead over his closest pursuers on Wednesday.
The 17-year-old Benoni golfer will have to hold off a world-class field behind him though, if he hopes to get his hands on that prestigious trophy on Friday afternoon.
Reigning Australian Amateur champion Conor Purcell, compatriot James Sugrue from Ireland and Scotsman Euan Walker, who won the African Amateur Stroke Play Championship at Leopard Creek a fortnight ago, all form part of the chasing pack.
Also featuring are Southern Cape rising star Ben van Wyk and fellow GolfRSA National Squad members Luca Filippi and Garrick Higgo, who first bettered the 11-year-old course record set by Anton Haig in the 2006 Western Province Amateur in the morning.
And in the mix, too, is South Africa’s No 1-ranked Wilco Nienaber, who shot to 28th in the Official World Amateur Golf Rankings on Wednesday following his South African Amateur Championship triumph at King David Mowbray last Friday.
These are just some of the big names within striking distance at the 36-hole mark.
‘Now is not the time to get ahead of myself,’ Schaper said. ‘I played the last two days with a strategy for the course. I shot rounds of 67 and 63, and I’m not going to change a thing for the next two rounds. A five-shot, six-shot lead can evaporate quickly, especially on a course like this where you have to hit fairways and greens to go low.’
Schaper hit a sand wedge from 105 yards and slam-dunked it for eagle at the first.
‘I birdied the second and had a run of straight pars with a couple of lip-outs until I made a routine birdie at the par-five (eight). I left my birdie putt in the throat at nine, but I holed a five-footer for birdie at 11 to go five-under for the day.’
Then came the birdie blitz.
‘I made a good up-and-down for birdie at the par-five, Schaper said. ‘I holed a six-footer at 15 and hit 7-iron to 10 foot at 16 and boxed the putt. I holed another six-foot downhill putt at 17.
‘I knew about Garrick’s course record and I wanted to go for 62, so I went for the green at 18. The ball pitched 10 foot below the flag on the right. I had the line, but the eagle putt died inches from the hole on the low side. I tapped in for birdie to tie Garrick’s new record. I’m really pleased that I achieved what I set out to do, which was to put myself in contention before the last two rounds.’
Schaper was one of 33 players in the 148- players’ field that managed to finish in red figures on a wet and very windy first day, but par took a beating with sunny skies and warm weather on day two.
Making the most of his local course knowledge, local favourite Higgo fired a string of seven birdies from the 13th on his way to a record setting nine-under 63 and he moved to nine-under.
Nienaber posted 64 to finish at seven-under, and the big-hitting Bloemfontein golfer was later joined by Walker from Kilmarnock Barassie (71) and Van Wyk from Fancourt, who was flawless around the championship layout.
Second round leaderboard:
All competitors RSA unless otherwise specified:
130 Jayden Schaper 67 63
135 Garrick Higgo 72 63; Conor Purcell IRL 71 64
136 James Sugrue IRL 67 69; Luca Filippi 66 70
137 Wilco Nienaber 73 64; Ben van Wyk 69 68; Euan Walker SCO 66 71
138 Yurav Premlall 70 68
139 Meyer Pauw 73 66; Alexander Herrmann GER 72 67; Aneurin Gounden 72 67; Hennie O’Kennedy 71 68; Charles Larcelet FRA 71 68; Christo Lamprecht Jnr 71 68; Paulus Jorg GER 70 69; Kieran Cantley SCO 66 73
140 Deon Germishuys 73 67; Timo Vahlenkamp GER 71 69; Christiaan Burke 71 69; Kartik Sharma IND 70 70; Malcolm Mitchell 70 70; Samuel Simpson 70 70; Jordan Duminy 67 73
141 David Langley GBR 76 65; Tyran Snyders 74 67; LB Boshoff 74 67; Gregory Mckay 74 67; Joe Harvey GBR 71 70; Robert Brazill IRL 70 71; Ayden Senger 70 71; Keagan Thomas 69 72
142 Caolan Rafferty IRL 75 67; Billy McKenzie GBR 72 70; Therion Nel 72 70; Mark Power IRL 71 71; Zandre Labuschagne 70 72
143 Jannik De Bruyn GER 75 68; Byron Coetzee 74 69; Gianni Pera 74 69; Casey Jarvis 73 70; Calvin Ferreira 73 70; Peter McKeever IRL 73 70; Elton James 73 70; Francois le Roux 72 71; Philip Taberer 72 71; Kyle de Beer 71 72; Maxmilian Herrmann GER 69 74
144 Dandre Spies 75 69; Joseph Long GBR 74 70; Mark Hyde GBR 74 70; Callum Mackay GBR 74 70; Siyanda Mwandla 73 71; Armand van Dyk 73 71; Calvin Maia 73 71; James Wilson SCO 72 72; Robbie Cannon IRL 72 72; Ronan Mullarney IRL 71 73; Ethan Smith 71 73
145 Noah Hessey ENG 77 68; Brandon Cloete 76 69; Stals Swart 76 69; Caylum Boon 75 70; Cole Stevens 75 70; Cornel Müller 74 71; Matt Saulez 74 71; Loris Schuepbach SUI 74 71; Judd Sundelson 72 73; Mats Markovits NED 71 74; Luke Mayo 71 74; Jordan Burnand 70 75
Missed Cut
146 Shaun le Roux 78 68; Hendrik Jan Malan 76 70; Liam Ross 75 71; Stephen Roger SCO 74 72; Freddie Spencer 74 72; Elmo Barnard 73 73; Samual Mckenzie 73 73; Lukas Bastian Buller GER 71 75
147 Gerlou Roux 76 71; Jim Johnston SCO 76 71; Lewis Pownell GBR 75 72; Phillip Swanepoel 74 73; Martin Vorster 74 73; Luan Boshoff 73 74; Dylan Underwood 73 74; Tiarnan McLarnon IRL 72 75; Daniel Cronje 71 76
148 Carlo O’Reilly 77 71; Kyran Hawkins 76 72; Brendan Els 76 72; Francois Blaauw 76 72; Antoine Sale 74 74; Pierre Pellegrin 73 75
149 NJ Botha 78 71; Dylan Naidoo 77 72; Tom Plumb GBR 75 74; Darren Howie SCO 74 75; Mike Saxer 74 75; Brandon Gildenhuys 73 76
150 Ryan van Velzen 77 73; Anant Singh Ahlawat IND 76 74; Byron Sampson 76 74; Luke Pienaar 75 75; Titouan Berny 75 75; Crismar Engelbrecht 74 76; Tiaan Diedericks 74 76; Kieran Babbage GBR 74 76; Francois Cilliers 73 77
151 Weyers Janse van Rensburg 80 71; Vinay Kumar Yadav IND 78 73
152 Nicholas Morgan 78 74; Liam Millard 78 74; Sebastian Sliwka GER 77 75; Nicholaus Frade 76 76; Nicholas Souranis 76 76; Mandla Dlamini 76 76; Louis – Jnr Loubser 73 79
153 Barend Botha 81 72; Karabo Mokoena 79 74; Alex Gleeson IRL 78 75; Matthew Cooper 77 76; Henning Stander 74 79; Connor de Groote 73 80
154 Alexandre Dos Ramos 79 75; Liam van Deventer 79 75; Letsoso Letsai 78 76; James Murray 78 76; Hein Dreyer 75 79
155 Brendan Smith 82 73; Kifentse Nukeri 79 76; Dylan Melville 77 78; Jaco Linde 74 81; Coenraad Swanepoel 73 82
156 Varun Parikh IND 77 79
157 Max Hansen 79 78
158 Guillaume Bernier 80 78; Luca Schwarte 76 82
159 Florent Toulet 86 73; Michael Botha 81 78; Steven le Roux 77 82
160 Aran Sinclair 81 79; Willie Olivier 75 85
161 Dalan Tait 81 80
162 Luhan Bester 79 83
168 Tiago Swart 82 86
169 Phiwe Makeleni 85 84
WD Liam Cloete 77 WD; Jason Shaun Hale WD WD; Jeff Wright SCO WD WD
