Adilson da Silva maintained his slender lead at the Sun Wild Coast Sun Challenge as he signed for a 64 in the second round of the R800,000 event.
Birdies on the 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 13th and the 16th plus a bogey on the par-five 5th made up his round two scorecard.
‘My driving has been pretty much straight,’ he said after the round.
‘I got lots of chances on my approach shots. I think the key for me was just to make the putts that I have been missing in the last couple of months. I feel confident. It is nice to see the putts going in. It builds a lot of confidence.’
Da Silva is not planning to change his strategy in the final round.
‘I will just keep focus on what I am doing, just take it shot by shot and hang in there,’ he said.
Lurking dangerously behind Da Silva, and with the best score of the round by far, is Vaughn Groenewald whose nine-under-par 61 catapulted him to second on the leaderboard on 12 under for the tournament. Daniel van Tonder, Hennie du Plessis and Alex Haindl share the third spot on 10 under, three shots behind Da Silva.
‘A change of the putter on the back of three straight missed cuts was the difference,’ said Groenewald. ‘It has been a tough three weeks before this. We were off for quite a long while. I am a great putter and all of the sudden I just started putting badly. I had 33 or 34 putts the whole time. I missed three cuts in a row.
‘I putted well for five years and this week I decided I would try a new putter. I got the putter from Jacques [Blaauw]. Yesterday I putted nicely, 30 putts. It was much better and today 25 putts. It is just getting better,’ he said.
Groenewald won this event in 2015 and should he replicate his second-round performance at the weekend, he could be in with a shot. Zimbabwe’s Benjamin Follett-Smith and Duane Keun share sixth on nine under while the returning Darren Fichardt, Wynand Dingle, Jake Roos and Titch Moore occupy eighth.
Second round leaderboard:
127 – Adilson Da Silva 63 64
128 – Vaughn Groenewald 67 61
130 – Daniel van Tonder 64 66, Hennie du Plessis 66 64, Alex Haindl 67 63
131 – Benjamin Follett-Smith 67 64, Duane Keun 68 63
132 – Darren Fichardt 66 66, Wynand Dingle 65 67, Titch Moore 66 66, Jake Roos 67 65
133 – Jacques Blaauw 65 68, Louis Albertse 67 66, Oliver Bekker 69 64, Victor Lange 66 67
134 – Doug McGuigan 69 65, CJ du Plessis 67 67, Thriston Lawrence 68 66
135 – Louis de Jager 70 65, Jean Hugo 69 66, Philip Eriksson 67 68, Francois van Vuuren 68 67, Aubrey Beckley 70 65, Michael Hollick 68 67, Toto Thimba 65 70, Lyle Rowe 67 68, Jean-Paul Strydom 66 69, Breyten Meyer 68 67, Neil Schietekat 67 68, Chris Swanepoel 68 67, Jaco Prinsloo 65 70
136 – Rhys West 70 66, Philip Geerts 69 67, Andre Nel 70 66, Ruan Conradie 67 69, Pieter Moolman 69 67, Chris Cannon 71 65, Marc Cayeux 67 69, Christiaan Basson 69 67
137 – Fredrik From 69 68, Callum Mowat 69 68, Stephen Ferreira 68 69, Desne Van Den Bergh 67 70, Colin Nel 68 69, Jared Harvey 69 68, Rourke van der Spuy 68 69, Keenan Davidse 66 71, Garth Mulroy 68 69, Jake Redman 68 69, Jacquin Hess 68 69, Madalitso Muthiya 69 68
Missed the cut:
138 – Jason Viljoen 69 69, Musiwalo Nethunzwi 70 68, Heinrich Bruiners 67 71, Wallie Coetsee 72 66, Hennie Otto 71 67, Michael Palmer 70 68, Stuart Smith 70 68, Derick Petersen 71 67, David McIntyre 69 69, Coert Groenewald 69 69, Roberto Lupini 71 67, Anton Haig 68 70, Martin Rohwer 64 74, Andrew Curlewis 71 67
139 – Jade Buitendag 72 67, Franklin Manchest 71 68, Merrick Bremner 70 69, Herman Loubser 72 67, MJ Viljoen 70 69, Anthony Michael 74 65
140 – Mohammad Rauf Mandhu 68 72, Kyle McClatchie 70 70, Luke Jerling 71 69, Scott Campbell 68 72, James Pennington 71 69, Ockie Strydom 69 71, Andre De Decker 75 65, Tyrone Ferreira 66 74
141 – Marthin Scheepers 73 68, Wayne Stroebel 74 67, Warren Abery 72 69, Trevor Fisher Jnr 71 70, Ulrich van den Berg 71 70, JJ Senekal 71 70, Theunis Bezuidenhout 70 71
142 – Daniel Greene 72 70, Thabang Simon 73 69, Combrinck Smit 73 69
143 – Bryandrew Roelofsz 74 69, Erhard Lambrechts 70 73, Gideon van der Vyver 76 67, Makhetha Mazibuko 76 67, Mark Williams 70 73
144 – Mohit Mediratta 71 73, Keelan Africa 75 69, Altaaf Bux 69 75, Jason Smith 73 71, Michael Green 75 69
145 – Teboho Sefatsa 70 75, Allister de Kock 74 71, Kayyam Rauf Mandhu 76 69, Estiaan Conradie 72 73
146 – Ryan Tipping 72 74, Bennie van der Merwe 77 69
149 – Michael Schutz 74 75
150 – Jacques P de Villiers 77 73
152 – Ruan de Smidt 76 76
154 – Basil Wright 76 78, Thabo Moraba 76 78
156 – Jabulane Mabilane 75 81
161 – Willem Lindeque 83 78
RTD – Andre Cruse RTD RTD, Stefan Engell Andersen 79 RTD
