Ken Borland

KITWE – First-round leader MJ Viljoen played another solid round of golf but home favourite Dayne Moore was too great an adversary in the second round of the Mopani Zambia Open at Nkana Golf Club on Friday as he shot a spectacular 64, that included a hole-in-one, to snatch top spot on the leaderboard.

Viljoen followed up his excellent 66 in the first round with a two-under 70 on Friday, but still surrendered a two-stroke lead to Moore, whose 64 was his best ever round on the Sunshine Tour.

The Zambian’s hole-in-one came on the par-three third hole, but Moore produced plenty of superb golf as he went bogey-free and collected six birdies as well.

“Three is such a tough hole and I was just trying to get on to the top level, to be honest,” Moore said. “It was 221 metres to the flag and down off the right, and I hit a high six-iron which just came off exactly how I wanted.

“But the scorer at the back of the green wasn’t looking, so there was no reaction. When I walked up to the green, I actually started looking over the green at first. It’s my third hole-in-one and I got one on the Big Easy Tour at Wingate two years ago.

“But apart from being lucky at the third, my putter worked really well, especially on quite a few clutch par putts. And I hit 15 greens in regulation. I’ve been seeing coach Neil Cheetham and he has completely changed my long game, he has helped me a lot. That’s where I was lacking, because my short game has always been something I could lean on,” Moore said.

Moore leapt up to 10-under-par going into the weekend, and Viljoen was also on that mark after 12 bogey-free holes on Friday that included an eagle on the par-five second. But the par-fours coming in proved his stumbling block as he dropped shots on the 13^th, 14^th and 16^th holes, before birdieing the par-five 17^th to finish on eight-under-par.

Kyle Barker also had an excellent second round, shooting a 68 to claim third spot on six-under-par.

Jacques P. de Villiers and Fredrik From both shot 70s to share fourth place on four-under-par, while Lyle Rowe completed the top six, notching a level-par 70 on Friday for three-under-par.

Jason Roets was sharing second place after the first round with Keegan Thomas, but tumbled down the leaderboard on Friday, having six bogeys in his 76 that saw him finish on level-par.

Thomas suffered even more, struggling to an 80 in the second round, which left him on four-over-par.

Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zanotti is the only golfer to claim a hole-in-one in the 40 years of the Nedbank Golf Challenge, so it was perhaps only prim and proper that he should be at the top of the leaderboard at the end of his first round on Thursday as Africa’s Major returned to Sun City.

With the limited fields in existence for most of the famous event’s history, it took 35 years for the first ace to be recorded, with Zanotti the man to make history when he sunk his seven-iron on the 195m par-three fourth hole in the second round in 2016.

On that occasion, his eagle took him to the top of the leaderboard, but unfortunately he could not hold on to that position as a 78 in the third round saw him tumble, but a 72 on the final day did see him finish tied-16^th.

On Thursday he also did not stay at the top of the pile, as he was overtaken by Guido Migliozzi and then Luke Donald and Ryan Fox, but his excellent four-under-par 68 means he is very much in contention to be the first South American winner of the tournament.

The 39-year-old Zanotti smiled broadly when reminded of his 2016 feat and asked whether the Nedbank Golf Challenge has a special place in his heart.

“I really like it here and you play holes and see places where you hit really good shots before. But this time I nearly hit it in the water on the fourth!

“But my play from the tee was one of the good things today. I made a great start on the 10^th with a birdie and then it was just about keeping patient.

“The wind always gets harder here and sometimes you miss the direction. And a few of the pin positions are very difficult, a bit inaccessible, but it is pretty fair overall.

“The greens are still a little soft, but as they get harder then the pin positions will be tougher,” Zanotti said.

The two-time DP World Tour winner is ranked 48^th on the order of merit, so he was understandably happy with his start to this Rolex Series event, tied in fourth place, four off the lead, with the top-50 on the points list going through to next week’s World Tour Championship finale in Dubai.

“I’ve been really steady this year, made a lot of cuts and had a few good results. But I need a good week here and I want to put four good rounds together because I always seem to make a few mistakes and have one poor round.

“At the beginning of the season, you always plan to be there in Dubai at the end, it was one of my goals. I am three days away from doing it, but I just need to be very patient in my thinking,” Zanotti said.

Bryce Easton’s highly noticeable yellow floppy hat is at odds with his modest self-effacing personality, but the 25-year-old thrust himself into the limelight with a seven-under-par 65, that included a hole-in-one, on the tougher East Course in the opening round of the Joburg Open at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club on Thursday.

Easton’s brilliant round left him one stroke behind the early lead of eight-under-par set by 2008 champion Richard Sterne on the easier West Course, and was one of the main talking points of the morning.

But the lanky Durbanite was still surprised by all the fuss.

“Why do the media want to talk to me? Surely they’re waiting for Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace?” he said.

While Easton did not drop a stroke and holed his tee-shot on the 167-metre par-three 12th, he said he was not entirely satisfied with his round, having erred too many times for his liking with the driver.

“I missed a few fairways so I still need to figure out the driver a bit, I have some work to do this afternoon. But it’s nice to have a round where you don’t hit the ball so well but you still score well.

Golf’s a funny game, sometimes you hit the ball flush and you don’t score so well,” Easton said.

Easton took a seven-iron on the 12th hole and the ace meant he went away with a million bonus points from the Hilton Hotel group, sponsored by Investec, which translates to about R100 000 of free accommodation.

“It’s my first hole-in-one and you obviously don’t think about it when you’re playing the hole. But then the ball goes in and it takes you a couple of seconds to realise it’s disappeared. It was an awesome feeling and the million Hilton points is a nice bonus,” he said.

It was a great day in the office for the two-time winner on the 2012 Sunshine Tour and there is always the expectation of going lower on the West course at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington. But Easton  will not be taking anything for granted.

“I know the West course a bit better, before today I’d only played a single practice round on the East, but you never know how things will go.”

With 2012 having been a breakthrough year for the 2011 rookie, Easton was asked whether he was targeting the European Tour co-sanctioned events this year.

“Yes, I want to play more consistently and compete more in these bigger events. Last year I had a couple of wins, but I didn’t play so well in these co-sanctioned tournaments,” Easton said.

Having won the Sun City Challenge, eagling the last hole to force a playoff, and the Zebula leg of the Vodacom Origins of Golf two weeks later in 2012, Easton is clearly a golfer whose talent is beginning to bloom.