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George - Jaco Ahlers didn’t make a single birdie on the five par-fives on The Links at Fancourt on Friday as he signed for a five-under-par 68 in the second round of the Dimension Data Pro-Am to take a two-stroke lead at the halfway mark.
Ahlers led defending champion George Coetzee and last week’s Eye of Africa PGA Championship runner-up Dylan Frittelli by two in the tournament which is played over all three courses at Fancourt Hotel and Golf Estate - The Links, Outeniqua and Montagu. After the players have completed a round on each, a cut is made and the final round takes place on Montagu.
Ahlers moved to George in 2015, and he has found the move helpful in this tournament.
“The Links is becoming more and more my friend since I’ve moved to George,” he said.
“It treated me nicely today. Just the par-fives didn’t treat me well at all - I didn’t birdie one of them! That’s a bit disappointing on a course that has five of them. But overall, it was a good round. It could have been so much better, but we all say that after a good round.”
Coetzee, on the other hand, managed to make birdies on three of the par-fives, but still seemed to battle his way around a course the players regards as the most challenging in the tournament.
“It was a bit of a struggle,” he said. I hit a couple of loose tee shots in the middle third of the round but I felt that I putted pretty well and I hope tomorrow is even better. I wasn’t really on it today, so I’m ecstatic with the score. It shows that if you concentrate and think your way around, you can survive.”
Ahlers, however, battled a bit with some of his short putting.
“I missed a couple of five-footers today,” he said.
“It was just a misread. I missed a four-footer on the last for birdie. I just couldn’t see it. I hit it inside left and it went left. The ones I missed were all like that. There’s nothing wrong with the stroke. I think it’s just a bit of grain on these greens that I can’t see.”
It was a day on which Outeniqua, the course which normally delivers the low round of the day, didn’t do so. Christiaan Basson got it round Montagu in six-under 66, while the best round on Outeniqua came from Ruan de Smidt, who carded a five-under 67 to move into a share of fourth place with Ockie Strydom, Jean Hugo, Le Roux Ferreira, Laurie Canter, Mark Williams, Jared Harvey, Anthony Michael and Danie van Tonder.
Scores:
-12 - Jaco Ahlers 65 68
-10 - George Coetzee 67 68, Dylan Frittelli 67 68
-8 - Ruan de Smidt 69 67, Ockie Strydom 69 68, Jean Hugo 69 68, Le Roux Ferreira 66 70, Laurie Canter 64 73, Mark Williams 66 71, Jared Harvey 69 68, Danie van Tonder 70 67, Anthony Michael 67 70
-7 - Paul Lawrie 69 69, Wallie Coetsee 66 71, Jeff Winther 70 68
-6 - Ruan Pretorius 67 72, Rhys Enoch 71 67, Trevor Fisher Jnr 70 69, Chris Swanepoel 69 70, Chris Lloyd 68 71, Jonathan Agren 69 69, Christiaan Basson 73 66
-5 - Makhetha Mazibuko 70 70, Hennie Otto 69 71, Tyrone Ferreira 69 70, Oliver Bekker 72 68, Mark Murless 71 68, Doug McGuigan 67 73, Allan Versfeld 69 71, Grant Veenstra 71 68
-4 - Teaghan Gauche 71 69, Eddie Pepperell 73 67, Bryce Easton 71 69, Riekus Nortje 70 71, Keenan Davidse 72 68, Wynand Dingle 70 71, Steven Ferreira 69 71, Theunis Spangenberg 73 67, Justin Hicks 70 71, Andrew Georgiou 70 70, Jake Redman 70 71, Matthew Carvell 71 69
-3 - Toby Tree 69 73, Ulrich van den Berg 72 69, Lee Westwood 68 74, Jason Froneman 70 71, Alex Haindl 69 72, Martin Rominger 69 72, Lee Slattery 69 73, Gareth Maybin 71 70, Bradley Neil 71 71, Louis de Jager 75 67, Lyle Rowe 70 72, Neil Schietekat 71 70, Colin Nel 69 72
-2 - Jason Viljoen 69 73, Dean Burmester 69 74, Justin Harding 73 70, Hennie du Plessis 73 70, Vaughn Groenewald 70 73, Wil Bateman 69 74, Jack Harrison 72 70, Peter Karmis 72 70
-1 - Jeff Hopkins 74 70, Bryn Flanagan 69 74, Garth Mulroy 68 76, Musiwalo Nethunzwi 71 73, Darren Fichardt 72 72, Erik van Rooyen 70 74, Keith Horne 68 76, Titch Moore 73 70, Gavin Moynihan 69 75, Tjaart van der Walt 71 73, Andre de Decker 70 74
Par - Heinrich Bruiners 67 78, Christiaan Bezuidenhout 68 77, Omar Sandys 71 73, Jbe' Kruger 70 75, Jaco Prinsloo 70 75, Ross McGowan 69 76, Jeff Inglis 72 72, Callum Mowat 71 73, Steve Surry 72 73, Kevin Rundle 70 74
+1 - Sipho Bujela 72 74, Stuart Smith 69 77, Daniel Greene 73 73, Luke Joy 69 77, Jean-Paul Strydom 76 70, Andrew Odoh 74 71
+2 - Tyrone Ryan 74 73, James Kamte 71 75, Ryan Tipping 74 72, Rourke van der Spuy 74 73, Stefan Engell Andersen 71 76, Derick Petersen 74 72, Merrick Bremner 71 76, James Kingston 75 72, Morne Buys 72 74, David Law 77 70, JC Ritchie 69 78, Morten Orum Madsen 72 74
+3 - Francesco Laporta 77 71, Jacquin Hess 74 73, MJ Viljoen 75 73, Daniel Hammond 75 73, Jacques Kruyswijk 72 76, Lindani Ndwandwe 71 76, CJ du Plessis 75 73, Madalitso Muthiya 72 75, Ross Kellett 72 76, Michael Hollick 74 73, Jake Roos 76 72, Gert Myburgh 73 74, Francois Coetzee 74 73
+4 - Breyten Meyer 71 78, Pieter Kruger 76 73, Divan van den Heever 70 78, N.J. Arnoldi 76 73, Oscar Stark 71 77, Christofer Blomstrand 73 75, Ryan Cairns 71 78, Dwayne Basson 76 72
+5 - Bryce Bibby 74 75, Tristen Strydom 73 76, Johan van der Wath 77 73, Tyron McComb 84 66
+6 - Stephen Ferreira 75 76, Mohammad Rauf Mandhu 73 78, Leorin Pillay 74 76, Thanda Mavundla 78 72, Julian Suri 80 71
+7 - Desne Van Den Bergh 70 82, Trevor Mahoney 77 75, Callie Swart 75 76, Andrew Curlewis 77 75, Jaco Mouton 75 77
+8 - Teboho Sefatsa 80 73, Irvin Mazibuko 79 74, Brett Liddle 77 75, JJ Senekal 77 76, Charl Coetzee 79 74
+9 - Greg Bentley 77 77, Anton Haig 79 74, Russel Franz 79 75
+10 - Divan Gerber 74 80, Gerrit Foster 81 74
+11 - Rhys West 81 75, Gideon Pienaar 80 76
+12 - Gerard du Plooy 76 81, Alan Michell 83 74
+13 - Ben Fouchee 76 82, Dayne Moore 78 80
+14 - MJ Daffue 77 82, Jack Kutumane 77 82, Richard Finch 83 76, Thabang Simon 76 83
+15 - Neal Herman 82 78, PH McIntyre 76 84
+16 - Ruan Huysamen 80 81, Drikus van der Walt 87 74
+25 - Johan Engelbrecht 84 86
+34 - Marc Cayeux 90 89
