An eagle on his second-last hole of the second round on Friday of the Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour co-sanctioned AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open saw Jacques P de Villiers into a share of second place heading into the weekend.
On a day when scoring was considerably tougher than it was in the first round, because of difficult winds sweeping across the Heritage La Réserve Golf Club course, De Villiers made four birdies and two bogeys on his opening nine after starting his round on the 10th. Then he held things together as conditions appeared to become tougher for all around him. He made pars all the way until the fifth, where he made birdie, and then, on the eighth where there were two eights and a 10 during the second round, he made his eagle to climb to nine-under for the tournament.
That put him one stroke off the lead, which was held by Swede Sebastian Soderberg, who had the round of the day with his seven-under-par 65 lifting him to 10-under – despite a double-bogey six on the seventh. In a share of second with him was Germany’s Marcel Schneider, who had a four-under-par 68. They, in turn, were a shot clear of defending champions and first-round leader Antoine Rozner of France, and England’s Paul Waring and Daniel Brown.
South Africans Wilco Nienaber, Dylan Naidoo, Lyle Rowe and last week’s winner from Leopard Creek, Louis Oosthuizen, were in a share of seventh with two other players. Pieter Moolman, Darren Fichardt and Brandon Stone were on six-under in a share of 13th.
