Breyten Meyer carded a potential championship-winning nine-under-par 61 second round of the Sibaya Challenge in hot conditions in Durban to total 12 under for the tournament and take a two-stroke lead into the final round.
Coming into the second round of this final tournament in the Sun International Golf series for this season, Meyer was two shots back of the leading group which consisted of CJ du Plessis, Jean Hugo, Jake Redman and on-form rookie, Louis Albertse who were all five under par.
He started from the 10th on Thursday, making pars on his first two holes. And then, he got his groove back, suddenly, birdieing the 12th, 13th and the 14th. Two pars later, he made another birdie to turn bogey-free.
‘From the start of the day, all I was doing was to try and make the cut,’ he revealed after his round. ‘I’ve been on a really bad run of form lately but when I started making birdies early on, I thought let me just keep going in the right direction instead of thinking about the cut.’
Solid as his back nine was, Meyer’s best was yet to come. After picking up a par at the turn and then making his only bogey of the day, Meyer went on a rampage, making six back-to-back birdies in what was by far the best round of the tournament up to this point.
‘Today I probably made more birdies that I have made in the last five or six events, probably. So, I am pretty happy about that round.’
He credits an improved course-management regime and a strong state of mind for what is his best round this season.
‘I hit a lot of good shots,’ he said, ‘but, I think for the last two days, my course management was great so I tried to keep myself in positions where I could try and hit some decent shots and easy putts. My mental side – trying to stay calm and not thinking about the score – also helped a lot today.’
Two shots behind Meyer, Du Plessis backed up his opening 65 with another in round two to get to 10 under. Just as it was in the opening round, Du Plessis’ round consisted of six birdies and a single bogey. He, however, felt he left a few out there today.
‘I played really nicely,’ he noted, ‘but, I could have shot a couple better. I just stuck to my game plan today, hit the same number of fairways that I hit yesterday, same number of putts. I’ve got some good people behind me helping so it is nice when you start playing well.’
With the layout at The Woods allowing for some really low scores this week – Doug McGuigan shot a 63 while there were a number of players shooting 64s on Thursday – the final round promises to be nothing less than spectacular if the weather plays along.
Second round leaderboard:
128 – Breyten Meyer 67 61
130 – CJ du Plessis 65 65
131 – Peter Karmis 67 64
132 – Louis de Jager 68 64, Hennie Otto 66 66
133 – Louis Albertse 65 68, Jean Hugo 65 68
134 – Luke Joy 66 68, Jake Roos 66 68, Ulrich van den Berg 68 66
135 – Todd Clements 66 69, Wallie Coetsee 69 66, Doug McGuigan 72 63, Adilson Da Silva 68 67, Jake Redman 65 70
136 – Merrick Bremner 67 69, James Kamte 68 68, Duane Keun 72 64, Erhard Lambrechts 68 68, Ryan Cairns 67 69, Tyrone Ferreira 68 68
137 – Ockie Strydom 67 70, Martin Rohwer 71 66, Rhys Enoch 69 68, Colin Nel 69 68, Daniel van Tonder 68 69, Alex Haindl 69 68, Neil Schietekat 69 68, Michael Palmer 68 69, Garth Mulroy 68 69
138 – Luke Jerling 72 66, Jean-Paul Strydom 69 69, Keith Horne 74 64, Pieter Moolman 69 69, Jaco Ahlers 72 66, Thriston Lawrence 67 71, Anton Haig 70 68, Herman Loubser 68 70, Scott Campbell 71 67
139 – Luke Mayo 68 71, Marc Cayeux 70 69, Tyrone Ryan 71 68, Bryce Easton 72 67, Keenan Davidse 69 70, Madalitso Muthiya 72 67, Jonathan Agren 71 68, Jacques Blaauw 70 69, Jaco Prinsloo 69 70
Missed the cut:
140 – Aubrey Beckley 70 70, Thabang Simon 71 69, Estiaan Conradie 71 69, Ruan Conradie 74 66, Vaughn Groenewald 67 73, Jade Buitendag 70 70, Christiaan Basson 69 71, Coert Groenewald 71 69, Heinrich Bruiners 71 69, Derick Petersen 74 66
141 – Andrew van der Knaap 74 67, Kyle McClatchie 72 69, Stephen Ferreira 69 72, Theunis Bezuidenhout 70 71, Jacques P de Villiers 69 72, Trevor Fisher Jnr 67 74, Rhys West 67 74, Jason Smith 69 72, Steven Lecuyer 70 71
142 – William Weidner 71 71, Omar Sandys 72 70, Ruan de Smidt 75 67, Rourke van der Spuy 73 69, Allan Versfeld 72 70, Philip Geerts 70 72, Wayne Stroebel 68 74, Andrew Odoh 70 72, Chris Cannon 72 70, Dawie Van der Walt 70 72, Callum Mowat 73 69, Allister de Kock 73 69
143 – Yubin Jung 71 72, Keelan Africa 69 74, Wynand Dingle 72 71, Teaghan Gauche 71 72
144 – Benjamin Follett-Smith 78 66, Basil Wright 74 70, Andre Nel 72 72, Jared Harvey 74 70, Fredrik From 71 73, Philip Eriksson 71 73, Francois Coetzee 72 72, Joe Nawanga 73 71
145 – Makhetha Mazibuko 72 73, Andrew Curlewis 73 72, Titch Moore 75 70, Desne Van Den Bergh 74 71, Lindani Ndwandwe 76 69, Marthin Scheepers 71 74
146 – Bradford Vaughan 76 70, Altaaf Bux 69 77, David McIntyre 76 70, Toto Thimba 75 71, Kevin Stone 73 73, Jacquin Hess 75 71
147 – Gideon van der Vyver 77 70, JJ Senekal 72 75, Chris Swanepoel 72 75, Thanda Mavundla 75 72
148 – Mohammad Rauf Mandhu 75 73, Bennie van der Merwe 76 72, Teboho Sefatsa 72 76, Siyanda Mwandla 77 71
149 – Fezekile Kana 76 73, Ryan Tipping 73 76
150 – Luke Trocado 80 70, Michael Hollick 73 77, Samba Niang 75 75
151 – Combrinck Smit 74 77
152 – Phumlani Maluka 76 76, Sipho Bujela 75 77, Roberto Lupini 74 78, Adriel Poonan 78 74
153 – Kayyam Rauf Mandhu 78 75
154 – Nisharlan Sewshanker 79 75, Jason Viljoen 79 75
