Breyten Meyer carded his best ever tournament round on Saturday at Royal Harare Golf Club to take a one shot lead over Vaughn Groenewald into Sunday at the Golden Pilsener Zimbabwe Open.
Out in seven-under-par 29 on the front nine, Meyer held his nerve to birdie twice on the homeward nine and sign for a nine-under-par 63.
He said. “Today when I started off, I hit good shots and I made putts. On the back-nine there were a few nervy shots, but going bogey-free was really good. I knew I was able to post a good score. My golf has been good over the last year –I just haven’t been able to put it together – but I’ve been working harder than ever before.”
Starting the tournament with a triple-bogey seven on the first hole, Meyer clawed back and now finds himself in contention on Sunday with a tournament total of 12-under-par. He said, “It’s interesting. I started the tournament with a triple-bogey. I put in a lot of work for this trip – for Zim and Zambia – and it’s a bummer starting with a triple, but I knew I just had to be patient because I’ve put in all the work.”
Groenewald began his round in brilliant fashion, carding three straight birdies. He would go on to birdie once more on the back-nine to sign for a four-under-par 68 and a total of 11-under-par for the tournament.
He said, “I found something on the range this morning and I struck the ball amazingly today. It was tricky out there and I had a couple shots where I didn’t trust it , but I played solidly the whole day. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and I’m feeling good.”
Steve Surry is another player who took advantage of the good conditions on moving day and carded a five-under-par 67 to leap into sole possession of third place on eight-under-par.
Hennie du Plessis fought back from an early double-bogey to card a four-under-par 68, and finish in fourth place on seven-under-par for the tournament.
Unfortunately, defending champion Dean Burmester made a triple-bogey eight on the par-five 16th to see his title defence slip away.
Since moving down to George on the Garden Route, Groenewald and Meyer have played together to hone their games and tomorrow they will make up the final pairing.
Meyer said, “I know Vaughn well and he’s also moved down to George, so we’ve played a lot of golf together and it’ll be great to go out with him on the last day.”
Away from the scores, it was a special day as players, spectators and officials were clad in blue to raise awareness for autism at Royal Harare Golf Club. Along with the PGA Tour, which did their ‘blue-day’ at the RBC Heritage on Thursday, the Sunshine Tour and Zimbabwe Golf Association joined hands to help promote the Els for Autism Foundation and the Pathways Autism Trust.
From sunshinetour.com
