Chris Paisley came home in 30 to sign for a second consecutive 65 and secure top seeding heading into the weekend at the Belgian Knockout.
The Englishman, who is well known in South Africa after holding off Branden Grace to win the SA Open at Glendower, moved to 12 under to finish one shot clear of Section B winner Anton Karlsson, with the top 32 from Sections A and B advancing to the knockout stages at Rinkven International Golf Club.
The remaining 64 players will now go head to head over six rounds of nine hole stroke play knockout to find a winner at the second staging of the innovative event.
Norwegian Espen Kofstad fired a 67 to finish second in Section A at nine under, a shot clear of Dutchman Darius van Driel and two ahead of England’s Oliver Wilson.
Last week’s winner Bernd Wiesberger carded the lowest round of the day with a 64 to recover from an opening 76 and finish one shot above an eight man play-off for the final five spots.
Dean Burmester and Guido Migliozzi were at six under, a shot ahead of Ewen Ferguson, Oliver Fisher, local favourite Kevin Hesbois, Sihwan Kim and Jeff Winther.
Jens Dantorp, Louis de Jager, Ben Evans, Grégory Havret, Richard McEvoy, Jake McLeod and Marcel Siem were at four under, one clear of home hero Thomas Detry, Tom Murray, J C Ritchie and Antoine Rozner.
Wiesberger was then at two under alongside Stanislav Matus, Renato Paratore, Haydn Porteous and Jack Singh Brar, with Nino Bertasio, Steven Brown, Daniel Gavins, Sam Horsfield and Søren Kjeldsen emerging from the play-off at one under.
