Jaco van Zyl converted all the playing he has been doing at home recently into a round of some substance on Friday when he took the halfway lead of the Bain’s Whisky Cape Town Open with a bogey-free seven-under-par 65 at Royal Cape Golf Club.
He converted all the experience of 15 Sunshine Tour titles, as well as the joy he takes of having his wife Stacy on the bag with him, into four bogeys on each nine after he started on the 10th. That translated into a 36-hole tally of nine-under-par and a one-shot lead over former champion Benjamin Follett-Smith on Zimbabwe, England’s Ashley Chesters and South Africa’s Dylan Mostert in the tournament co-sanctioned by the Sunshine Tour and the Challenge Tour.
“It’s been a frustrating time,” said Van Zyl, “because I’ve been playing pretty good golf but just not getting the results – other than the win in September last year. Although I didn’t drop a shot today, I had to work pretty hard on a couple of occasions to save par, and it was a little disappointing not to make birdie on either of the par-fives on the front nine.”
If he wants to pinpoint the biggest reason for such a sparkling round, he need look no further than his putting: He one-putted 10 times during the round, and had just 23 putts compared to the 29 he had in the first round. “It certainly wasn’t a case of fairways and greens today,” he laughed. “There was plenty of scrambling going on, but I suppose when that’s on, you can go low when you’re putting well.”
In his patient way, he played a lot of golf during the Sunshine Tour’s downtime over December and January. “I was consistently shooting in the low-60s,” he said, “so to convert that into tournament play is very gratifying.”
Mostert also had a 65 in the second round to cement his share of second, while Follett-Smith had a four-under 68. Chesters made three bogeys in his five-under 67, and will be looking to eliminate errors from his play over the weekend.
Borja Virto of Spain was the third player to card a 65, and he moved to six-under and a share of fifth. With him was qualifier Bradley Bawden of England, and another Spaniard in first-round leader Manuel Elvira who carded a level-par 72.
Further down the leaderboard, but still inside the top 10 at halfway, was recently-minted pro Martin Vorster. He added a three-under 69 to his opening 70 to be at five-under and just four off the pace.
Another former champion, Brandon Stone hung on for a level-par 72 in the second round to be on four-under and in a share of 15th, while other former champions Jacques Kruyswijk and Rhys Enoch of Wales missed the cut.
